Les Ruffians

by José Giovanni

Par ordre alphabétique, il y avait Barthy, le plus jeune, les mains fines et partisan du moindre effort. Aldo, amputé de trois doigts et entiché des femmes de couleur. Anselme, quarante ans, mais étonné d’avoir vécu jusque là. Tout marchait à moitié bien lorsque survint Stan, le solitaire. Et ce n’était pas un quatrième pour jouer au bridge. C’était l’enfer.

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

José Giovanni was the pseudonym of Joseph Damiani, a French murderer, writer and film-maker.

Giovanni was a former collaborationist and criminal who at one time was sentenced to death. He often drew his inspiration from personal experience or from real gangsters, such as Abel Danos in his 1960 film "Classe tous risques," overlooking that they had been members of the French Gestapo. In his films as well as his novels, while praising masculine friendships and advocating the confrontation of the individual against the world, he often championed the underworld but was always careful to hide his own criminal past and his links with the Nazi occupiers of France during World War II.