Suite Francaise

by: Irene Nemirovsky, Sandra Smith

Published by: Knopf

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Irene Nemirovsky was born in the Ukraine, and in the 1940s was a highly respected writer living in Paris when she began working on Suite Française. She was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz; a month later she was dead at the age of 39. Her daughters took the manuscript with them into hiding.

The first part of this book, "A Storm in June," covers the chaotic period just prior to the Nazi invasion of Paris, when hordes fled the city, facing the horrific changes in their lives and circumstances.

"Dolce," the second part, centers on a small provincial village in occupied France: the collaborators, soldiers, and the aristocrats, farmers, shopkeepers, and workers. There is the excitement of hiding villagers who have shot Germans, and the grind of day-to-day existence with the enemy living under your roof.

This book is lyrically written, a new classic for the millennium.

Armchair Interviews says: Fantastic story