Suite Francaise

Irène Némirovsky author Sandra Smith translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:1st Feb '07

Should be back in stock very soon

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Suite Francaise cover

Already acclaimed as a classic, this is the lost masterpiece behind the major new film starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Michelle Williams

Read the lost masterpiece behind the major new film starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Michelle Williams

In 1941, Irène Némirovsky 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.

**AS FEATURED IN HRH THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL'S BOOK CLUB, THE READING ROOM**

'A masterpiece' The Sunday Times


In 1941, Irène Némirovsky 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.

A masterpiece * Sunday Times *
Quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth -- Anne Chisholm * Sunday Telegraph *
An irresistible work. Suite Francaise clutches the heart -- Carmen Callil * The Times *
The work of a genuine artist -- Julian Barnes * Guardian *
Magnificent * The Times *
Suite Francaise is one of those rare books that demands to be read -- Helen Dunmore * Guardian *
Suite Francaise is the most powerful account of that time and place many of us have ever read...this extraordinary woman's work is receiving the celebration it deserves. I defy anyone to read it without tears of admiration and pity for its author -- Max Hastings * Daily Mail *
A book of exceptional literary quality, it has the kind of intimacy found in the diary of Anne Frank * Times Literary Supplement *
What is to me most remarkable is the degree to which Nemirovsky, writing so close to the event, has nevertheless distilled it to extract the significance of each moment and episode. it is literature, not journalism... Her novel is in the classic French tradition, intelligent and sensuous * Scotsman *
A beautifully observed, devastating critique of French society on the brink of war -- Catherine Taylor * i *

  • Runner-up for Reading Group Book of the Year 2007
  • Short-listed for Independent Booksellers' Week Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2007
  • Short-listed for British Book Awards: Book of the Year 2007

ISBN: 9780099488781

Dimensions: 198mm x 128mm x 24mm

Weight: 293g

416 pages