The second world war classic of life under Nazi occupation. Némirovsky was sent to Auschwitz in
1942. In 1941 Irène sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was
living through by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of
France. Némirovsky's death in Auschwitz in 1942 prevented her from seeing the day sixty-five
years later that the existing two sections of her planned novel sequence Suite Française
would be rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece. Set during the year that France fell to the
Nazis Suite Française falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of
Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural
community under occupation. Suite Française is a novel that teems with wonderful characters
struggling with the new regime. However amidst the mess of defeat and all the hypocrisy and
compromise there is hope. True nobility and love exist but often in surprising places.
VINTAGE FRENCH CLASSICS - six masterpieces of French fiction in collectable editions.'A
masterpiece of French fiction' Sunday Times'One of those rare books that demands to be read'
Guardian
