Le Clan des Ostendais
One of 13 copies on pur fil paper, this one of only 3 hors commerce copies (C), the sole deluxe paper. This is the smallest print run for a Simenon published by Éditions Gallimard.
Once again the novel is set in La Rochelle and a nearby village. It was written at Glengarry House, in New Brunswick, from 17 to 25 June 1946 — one of only two novels Simenon wrote there, the other being Au bout du rouleau.
The manuscript was destroyed by Simenon, and no typescript or other trace of it survives.
Le Clan des Ostendais is, along with Le Train, the only work by Simenon to contain historical references to the Second World War. It tells the story of Omer Petermans, a Flemish man who flees Ostend by sea, braving German aircraft and mines aboard five trawlers on which he has loaded his belongings, his family and those of his sailors. At La Rochelle, the local authorities requisition the boats, forcing the whole group to settle in Charron, a small village nineteen kilometers to the north. What follows is their determination to reach the cliffs of England at any cost.
An important dark novel by Simenon, describing a situation he knew well: the influx of Belgian refugees into France (Simenon had been appointed responsible for the reception of Belgian refugees and organized a sale of his manuscripts in aid of prisoners of war in 1943).
A rare title.