The action of this novel is set in a whorehouse of a European city under Nazi occupation. With moral degradation, we are presented starkly contagious and invasive power of abjection and the split between the call of the abyss and aspiration to an ideal purity. The novel eventually revealing to us a hero or a callous fool who accepts punishment as a ransom. Never concentrate here Simenon managed as effectively as complex and profound moral issue, halfway between ignominy and innocence. Indeed, the snow was dirty ...
