La Main
The Man on the Bench in the Barn is a novel by the Belgian writer Georges Simenon. The original French version La Main ("The Hand") appeared in 1968. The novel is among his romans durs, a term roughly translated as hard, or harrowing, novels; it was used by Simenon for what he regarded as his serious literary works.
In 2016, this novel was reissued in English under the title The Hand, newly translated by Linda Coverdale (ISBN 9780241284650).
The novel is set in Connecticut, USA. Simenon lived in America from 1945 to 1955; from 1950 he lived at Shadow Rock Farm in Lakeville, Connecticut. Unlike his other novels set in America, it was written many years after his return to Europe.
In the novel, a man's life is changed when, instead of looking for his friend lost in a blizzard, he sits on a bench in a barn next to his house and smokes cigarettes; later, he has an affair with his friend's widow, all the while wondering what his wife is thinking about him.
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