Les volets vert by Georges Simenon, a conversation with Valerio Magrelli and Paolo Di Paolo, reading by Lino Guanciale

Tuesday 4 May 2021 at 6 p.m.
Les volets vert by Georges Simenon
A conversation with Valerio Magrelli and Paolo Di Paolo
Reading by Lino Guanciale

With a plot that shifts between the present and the past, between reality and memory, the novel presents the lift of an elderly Parisian actor, Émile “the great Maugin”, a man who has fought to escape from poverty to become rich, famous and successful. Maugin has every reason to be happy, surrounded by a “court” of friends and acquaintances who tolerate his arrogance, his theatricality and his manias both small and large. When a medical check-up reveals that he has heart problems - “a sort of soft and withered pear” where his left ventricle ought to be - his sense of security is shaken.

 

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) Famous worldwide for having created the figure of the detective Maigret, Georges Simenon was one of the most prolific authors of the twentieth century. His work (approximately 500 titles, some published under a pseudonym) cover the most wide-ranging of literary genres, from detective novels to noir, from “yellowbacks” to serial novels, as well as psychological thrillers. A Belgian-born francophone, both his working and private lives were fraught with anxiety. It was said that he could write up to eighty pages a day, in one go, without any particular preparation.