When Georges Simenon returns to his hometown of Liège to accompany his ninety-year-old mother during her final days, two eyes of washed-out gray fixate on him in the hospital room. "Why have you come, Georges?" Thus begins a final, motionless duel between mother and son. Growing up in poverty, the mother's life was marked by deprivation and disappointments, an unwavering desire for upward mobility, and concerns about her livelihood and public image. Her relationships with her two husbands were cold, and she failed to appreciate her son's fame. He was never good enough. Did they ever understand each other, did they ever love each other? Three years after her death, Simenon wrote a letter to his mother. It is perhaps his most significant autobiographical text, a slim book of immense impact.