Good book, totally different than other Georges Simenon's books I have read before. Soviet regime keeps everyone under control. People disappearing and dying no-one can question why. Turkish consul tries to understand what is going on not knowing whom he can trust.

It is easy to sometimes forget how good Georges Simenon was at writing novels full of sinister tension, set in evocative, mysterious locations. I am so glad Penguin Classics have breathed new life into this 1933 masterwork.
Adil Bey, the new Turkish Consul, finds himself in Batumi (then part of the USSR), the chief oil port on the Black Sea. The location is particularly sinister and Simenon doesn't hold back on defaming Stalin's terrifying Soviet regime, of which he had personal experience.
As with many of Simenon's novels the reader benefits from an absolutely minimal plot soaked in atmosphere.
Perfection.

Simenon had just come out of a tour of Stalin's Soviet Union before he wrote this novel which is a condemnation of the corruption riddled system led by Stalin. A system were fat cats prey and the people are basically imprisoned and made to feed of each other because there certainly is not food to be had.

Adel Bey was a foreigner and he found it hard to put the pieces together to see the picture because he kept getting waylaid by the rhetoric. He was fortunate enough to escape simply because he was a foreigner, the people opposite could not.

Although Simenon is remembered now primarily for his Maigret books, he was also an outstanding novelist in other genres and this one is a fine example of that. He wrote it after a visit to the Soviet Union in 1933 and he brilliantly captures the absurdities and atrocities of Stalin’s Russia. It’s a psychologically astute and insightful novel about Adil Bey, who is posted to the Black Sea port of Batumi as the newly appointed Turkish consul after the death of the previous one in suspicious circumstances. No one welcomes him, it’s not clear what his role is, he can’t seem to make any progress and he feels increasingly ill at ease. He starts to rely more and more on his Russian secretary, but in a society where spies and informers are ubiquitous, she too is probably not what she appears and his paranoia grows. It’s a bleak and suspenseful novel, dark and menacing, and has a definite Kafkaesque flavour to it – something that anyone who knows about life in the Soviet Union will instantly recognise. And reading this at the height of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine when the country is deliberately hiding the truth from its citizens, the book gains an added relevance. Stalinism didn’t end with Stalin. I thoroughly enjoyed this masterful short novel and came away with an added respect for Simenon’s writing.

Georges Simenon wrote The People Opposite after returning from touring the Soviet Union in 1933, which included eight days in Ukraine and Black Sea port cities like Odessa. In many ways this book was his way of documenting the poverty and food insecurity he observed and how corrupt and oppressive the Soviet government was. The book centers around the experiences of Adil Bey, a newly appointed consul representing the Turkey government in the port city of Batumi. Just as with his Inspector Maigret books, Simenon records minutia like what Adil Bey heard, saw, smelled and tasted to describe what life was like in Batumi. Just as Adil had to, we also have to translate what he experiences to determine what it means. For instance, his secretary tells him to hide empty or half empty food containers so his cleaning lady doesn't see them. He's not told why but it's because they are experiencing a serious food shortage and many residents don't have enough to eat or access to special food items like he does. For me, It made for intense reading and at times some puzzlement. These events happened decades before I was born and in countries far away so I didn't make connections that readers in the 1930's would naturally have done. That's why I gave it four stars instead of five stars in my review.

My thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy of this story for review. Set in Soviet Batumi, the main character, Adil Bey, the new Turkish consul, arrives to replace his deceased predecessor. Finding himself ridiculed and insulted by the Italian consul and thwarted politely at every turn by the locals, this is as bleak a story as any Simenon wrote. It was written following his own visits to Stalin’s Soviet Union and to Turkey, where he met Trotsky. Amid the poverty, squalor and famine, there are state spies everywhere in Batumi; people know not to ask questions, assassinations are ignored, everyone is looking to make something on the side and nobody is quite what they seem. The consul, woefully prepared for his ordeal, becomes increasingly paranoid, finding his only solace in his unrequited ‘love’ for the secretary provided for him, who lives opposite with her relatives. Tragedy unfolds before the consul can enjoy an open horizon again.

Like others, I find the novel reminds me of Graham Greene only, mercifully, without the Catholicism. It’s not a book to read first out of Simenon’s works but it’s worth reading once you have become an addict!

I have followed Penguin’s love for Georges Simenon and read each modern translation of the Maigret series.

In the past I have struggled with some of his non-Maigret titles but Penguin have continued to provide new translations of his work into English.

Les Gens d'en face - The People Opposite was originally published in 1933 when Maigret novels were also hitting the presses at a rate of at least two per year.
Previously available as The Window Over the Way released in 1951 and again in 1972 by Penguin.
Another alternative title as is the way of these things saw an English copy released in 1955 as Danger Ashore.

Obviously you cannot read so many Maigret’s without falling in step with this famous detective and appreciating the writing of the author. So I am delighted to have found this wonderful Penguin edition via NetGalley and the publishers in the form of an advanced reading copy.

The paperback and kindle are due to be published on 03/03/2022.

From the opening pages of the book: ‘About the author.’

“In the spring of 1933, Simenon travelled through the Soviet Union,including a politically formative eight-day sojourn on the Black Seaport of Odessa, where he found out about the famine that was raging in Ukraine.
He then went to Turkey where he interviewed Trotsky.
Upon his return to France later that year, Simenon would write The People Opposite - an explicit critique of the poverty and corruption he had witnessed. He also published one of the few pieces by Western
writers that exposed the reality of Stalin's famine.”

Adil Bey arrives as Turkish consul in Batumi, a Soviet oil port on the Black Sea. He finds his position in some jeopardy from day one; unclear of his role amid corrupt bureaucracy, manipulation and as a stranger in a totally foreign land. He comes to rely heavily on his young Russian secretary who lives with her relatives across the street.

He has a sense of being watched and a subject of fun in others. He worries about his predecessor who died in suspicious circumstances and feels lost and without friends. As he draws closer to Sonia his secretary he realises their values, allegiances and expectations are poles apart, yet share a common destiny.

A story beautifully told full of threat and menace. Adil Bey is an engaging character searching for truth, understanding and a purpose while becoming less assured, more paranoid and generally sad and depressed.

I like the way the author uses Bey’s observations to inform the reader of the squalid conditions and meagre existence around the town and for the Russian people. This is countered by Sonia’s rebuttals, unspoken fears and dogmatic acceptance of the state.

He is cautioned about challenging the system, advised to play the game and survive without drawing attention to himself. But he can’t keep quiet forever and this leads to a dark and sinister endgame which is a thrilling and unexpected end to his time in Batumi.

Makes me feel I’ve read a true novel, a tour de force, similar to works by Graham Greene. Hunting down the next Penguin, to find more books by Simenon to enjoy.

Fooling ourselves

Adil Bey is the new Turkish Consul to the Soviet port of Batumi in Stalin’s Georgia. His predecessor has died mysteriously; he has no colleagues, his flat has no furniture, he has little idea of what to do. He quickly finds his job is to pointlessly feed requests to a Soviet bureaucracy which never responds except to ask for more paper. He is isolated, lonely, an object of derision. His only comfort is his increasing fascination with his young Georgian secretary, who happens to live in the small flat opposite his own with her sister and her husband, who also happens to be an officer in the Soviet secret police. As he attempts to wear down the reserve of the young woman, his actions will only lead to ultimate tragedy.

This short novel is a bitter dissection of the Stalinist state, its malign control of the people, and the lack of comprehension of the outsider regarding the outcome of any departure from the Party’s norms. Reminiscent of some of Graham Greene’s bleaker novels, this is a clever, if ultimately disquieting portrayal of the futility of messing with totalitarianism.

Astutely Observed…
Laced with mounting tension and unbelievably astute observations of human nature this is Simenon at his most bleak. A dark, suspenseful and brooding tale where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem but where no word is wasted.

This is a dark brooding novel set in Stalin’s Russia at the pot of Tbilisi on the Black Sea. Adil Bey is the
newly arrived Turkish consul who soon discovers that life within the city is harder and more challenging than anticipated. With the sudden death of his predecessor and the mixed relationships with fellow consulates, Adil soon discovers that all is not what it seems. With the support of his secretary Sonia, Adil tries to navigate Russian life but gradually he realises that he is facing darker forces and must try to outwit those around him to,survive.

As others have written, The People Opposite is probably not the place to start with Simenon. Set in a Black Sea port town in the Soviet Union between the wars, it's a unrelentingly bleak in its depiction of human nature. Everyone spies on and betrays each other, it's more Kafka than Maigret. However, the power of Simenon's description gradually draws you in so that you regard its characters more as victims of an inhuman world than controllers of their own fate. In this Preface, he argues against the notion of a preface: "Look, it's a novel! Shouldn't that be explanation enough?" So we should leave the book to speak for itself.

Georges Simenon us a great story-teller and he does it again in The people opposite. The book is a slow burner and as you go on, it pulls you in.

Dark, bleak psychological novel from the master Georges Simenon. Set in a small Soviet naval port off the Black Sea, a new Turkish consul arrives to oversee the Turkish embassy. He immediately is caught up in politiical intrigue and sees the power of the soviet state and it's impact upon the day to day lives of the ordinary people, where poverty and desperation overpowers their lives. The People Opposite is relentless in its bleakness and shows the power of Simenon's writing and his insight into human existence especially when faced with the trauma of surviving in a harsh environment. A must for readers who appreciate great writing.

An unremittingly bleak story. Not a mystery, though everything about the place and the people is a mystery to Adil Beys, sent as Turkish Consul to the port of Batumi on the Black Sea coast of Stalinist Georgia in a time of severe food shortage just before WWII. They are unwelcoming and uncommunicative, faces kept determinedly blank for fear of betrayal and punishment. Adil flounders around in the bureaucracy, trying to represent the people who need his help, but, not speaking the language or understanding the social undercurrents, he relies on others to interpret both, notably his secretary. Slowly he comes to recognise the futility of his efforts. The atmosphere is tense and foreboding, something bad waiting to happen - Simenon always excels at this.

Interestingly, he felt the need to write a preface to this story, explaining its origins:

‘I have written a novel. Batumi is a real place. The people are real. The story is real.
Or rather, every detail is real, but the whole thing is invented.
No, every detail is invented and the whole thing is real.’

A sobering experience. I recognise Simenon’s style throughout, but the story is very different from my earlier reading of his ‘romans durs’ and more politically charged. Recommended for fans rather than new readers of his work.