Thursday 2 May 2013

Suite Francaise


Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky


Irene Nemirovsky wrote Suite Francaise  intending it to be a series of 5 books.  Unfortunately she had only written two before she died.  They were published as one book in 2004 – but were written in the early 1940's just before the author was interned in Auschwitz and died there – despite having years earlier converted to Catholicism.

The book is set in the early days of the German occupation of France.

Suite Francaise
The author's handwritten manuscript

It was just good luck that it got published at all – her family thought it was a diary and didn't read it fearing it to be too painful and it was only looked at in 1998 and discovered to be fiction!

I recommend this book highly – obviously it suffers a bit from being only part of a planned series but it is poignant, sad and hopeful as well.  It has been very well translated.


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4 comments:

  1. thanks for the recommendation...i am always looking for a good book! our book club just finished Behind The Beauitful Foreveres...an enlightening book!!

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  2. What a sad story. I'll definitely look out for this book!

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  3. A highly interesting book, I am so glad they found and published it. Tough read in every aspect but totally worth it. I read it a while ago. My review is here and I'd be very happy to discuss it with anyone.

    Marianne from Let's Read

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  4. I've had this one on my shelf for awhile, so I'm glad to see you liked it. Her story is so sad, but it's great that her book was published.

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