false 40086 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169386986m/40086.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169386986s/40086.jpg Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But 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 thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece

The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.]]> 43944 39 3433584 book 2004 Suite Française total:11955|5:3012|4:4611|3:2976|2:1019|1:337| 11955 44807 19436 2693 22493 3.75 13137 3053 456401 3.74 11486 2554 752990 60654 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.73 11089 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 4 17 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Apr 16 19:36:46 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 10:05:14 -0700 2007 as it was happening. Needless to ...more...]]> 7944377 307208 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 5 14 false Fri Oct 19 12:08:22 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 02 17:15:29 -0700 2008
I've spent the last day trying to decide if I loved this book because I'm sentimental. The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was a Russian Jew who wrote this while living in occupied France. A respected author, she had married Micheal Epstein who had al...more...]]> 16706179 160319 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 3 8 false Thu Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 29 11:42:03 -0800 2008 Sun Mar 02 23:32:42 -0800 2008 more...]]> 25853753 66498 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 4 5 false Sun Jun 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 16:14:28 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 16:16:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 9080912 619244 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 3 6 false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 13 19:05:43 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 13 20:13:41 -0800 2007
Part II ("Dolce") - A German regiment settles in a small French town, and the villagers must learn...more...]]> 32898853 5 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 4 5 false Sun Sep 14 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 22:00:17 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 22:24:09 -0700 2008
*We later went to a book club...more...]]> 1713897 78870 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 5 4 false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 06 09:40:55 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 06 09:40:55 -0700 2007 more...]]> 14781772 793279 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 3 5 false Fri Apr 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Feb 06 19:28:21 -0800 2008 Fri Apr 04 16:05:13 -0700 2008
WWII is a somber subject, no way around it and so, of course, the book is somber. But even somber subjects can be compelling an...more...]]> 6326000 96381 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 5 4 false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Sep 17 09:09:58 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 21 08:54:48 -0800 2009
Nemirovsky actually intended to write...more...]]> 956926 41584 607701 0676977707 9780676977707 40 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176251573m/607701.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176251573s/607701.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/607701.Suite_Fran_aise 3.86 158 Suite Française is both a brilliant novel of wartime and an extraordinary historical document. An unmatched evocation of the exodus from Paris after the German invasion of 1940, and of life under the Nazi occupation, it was written by the esteemed French novelist Irène Némirovsky as events unfolded around her. This haunting masterpiece has been hailed by European critics as a War and Peace for the Second World War.

Though she conceived the book as a five-part work (based on the form of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony), Irène Némirovsky was able to write only the first two parts, Storm in June and Dolce, before she was arrested in July 1942. She died in Auschwitz the following month. The manuscript was saved by her young daughter Denise; it was only decades later that Denise learned that what she had imagined was her mother’s journal was in fact an invaluable work of art.

Storm in June takes place in the tumult of the evacuation from Paris in 1940, just before the arrival of the invading German army. It moves vividly between different levels of society–from the wealthy Péricand family, whose servants pack up their possessions for them, to a group of orphans from the 16th arrondissement escaping in a military truck. Némirovsky’s immense canvas includes deserting soldiers and terrified secretaries, cynical bank directors and hapless priests, egotistical writers and hardscrabble prostitutes–all thrown together in a chaotic attempt to escape the capital. Moving between them chapter by chapter, this thrilling novel describes a journey hampered and in some cases abandoned because of confusion, shelling, rumour, lack of supplies, bad luck and ordinary human weakness. Cars break down or are stolen; relatives are forgotten; friends are divided; but there are also moments of love and charity. Throughout, whether depicting saintly forbearance or the basest selfishness, Storm in June neither sweetens nor demonizes its characters; unsentimentally, with stunning perceptiveness, Némirovsky shows the complexities that mean no-one is simply a hero or villain.

The second volume, Dolce, is set in the German-occupied village of Bussy. Again, Némirovsky switches seamlessly between social strata, from tenant farmers to the local aristocracy. The focus, however, is on the delicate, secret love affair between a German soldier and the French woman in whose house he has been billeted; the passion, doubts and deceits of their burgeoning relationship echo the complex mixture of hostility and acceptance felt by the occupied community as a whole. Némirovsky is amazingly sensitive in her depiction of changing, often contradictory emotions, but her attention to the personal is matched by her sharp-eyed discussion of small-town life and the politics of occupation. In this myth-dissolving book, the French villagers see the Germans as oppressive warriors, but also as handsome young men, and occupation does nothing to remedy the condescension and envy that bedevil relations between rich and poor.

Quite apart from the astonishing story of its survival, Suite Française is a novel of genius and lasting artistic value. Subtle, often fiercely ironic, and deeply compassionate, it is both a piercing record of its time and a humane, profoundly moving novel.]]> 2004 5 3 false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Apr 30 17:14:16 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 16 18:41:00 -0800 2009 more...]]> 14654740 447538 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 5 4 false Mon Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 05 14:20:58 -0800 2008 Mon Apr 07 07:12:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 29539735 1 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 4 2 false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 07 13:33:23 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 11:51:16 -0700 2008
I loved the class breakdowns that occu...more...]]> 25325062 395599 888246 0676977715 9780676977714 9 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179197002m/888246.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179197002s/888246.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/888246.Suite_Fran_aise 3.85 20 Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But 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 thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece

The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 2004 4 3 false Fri Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jun 24 11:41:44 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 28 06:47:43 -0800 2009 more...]]> 18580247 395209 40086 1400044731 9781400044733 47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169386986m/40086.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169386986s/40086.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40086.Suite_Fran_aise 4.06 184 Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But 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 thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece

The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.]]> 2004 2 4 false Thu May 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 07:33:01 -0700 2008 Thu May 08 14:49:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 17857482 333146 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 4 2 false Mon Mar 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 16 09:05:31 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 23:48:48 -0700 2008 more...]]> 16038470 307083 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 5 2 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 17:46:41 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 20 22:01:07 -0700 2008
The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was a Russian Jew who fled the Bolsheviks in 1919 during the Russian Revolution. Her family...more...]]> 15867582 924071 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 3 2 false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Feb 19 21:26:13 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 22:10:30 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3991445 124733 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 5 2 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 02 16:50:48 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 09 20:12:04 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2905629 160113 40086 1400044731 9781400044733 47 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169386986m/40086.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169386986s/40086.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40086.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But 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 thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky’s literary masterpiece

The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.]]> 2004 5 2 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 10:21:16 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 14 14:52:09 -0700 2007
"Suite Francaise" was discovered 45 years after...more...]]> 996513 75071 43944 1400096278 9781400096275 2459 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456m/43944.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170240456s/43944.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43944.Suite_Fran_aise 3.75 11955 Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.]]> 2004 1 2 false Wed May 02 15:03:50 -0700 2007 Wed Dec 16 18:48:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=40086