"The time of colonial Africa is running out," Simenon wrote in 1932. But the exotic, alien aspects of life on that continent inspired him to some of his very best psychological fiction. The isolation and perpetual challenge Africa presented to European settlers served as a catalyst for the type of confrontation Simenon has always portrayed with particular brillance: that dark, frightening moment when a man is faced with the kernel of possibility within himself, aware of how helpless he is to control his fate. "Talatala" (first published in 1943) and "Tropic Moon" (first published in 1933 as Le Coup de Lune) have been translated by Stuart Gilbert and "Aboard the Aquitaine" (first published in 1936 as 45° à l'ombre) by Paul Auster and Lydia Davis.