Book burble: ‘An irresistible work. Suite Françoise clutches the heart’The Times

In 1941, Irene Nemirovsky sat down to write a book that could convey the magnitude of what she was living through by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. Nemirovsky’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 Françoise, would be rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece.

Set during the year that France fell to the Nazis, Suite Françoise 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 Françoise 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.

‘Quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth’ Sunday Telegraph
‘The facts surrounding the discovery of the book are as remarkable as its contents are magnificent…A triumph of indomitability and a masterwork of literary accomplishment’ Sunday Times
‘Possibly the most devastating indictment of French manners and morals since Madame Bovary …a novelist of the very first order, perceptive to a fault and sly in her emotional restraint’ Evening Standard

SUITE FRANCAISE by IRENE NEMIROVSKY (Copyright 2004, written 1941/2) Translator: Sandra Smith March 2006 | ISBN: 97800488781 | Publisher: Vintage

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Arrived just in time along with a fleece that looks cosy and warm :0). Thank you so much for donating to the raffle prize...now I need to fit it into my case!

A raffle prize for the uncon in Ipswich this weekend :0)

Part of the lovely French prize I won at Uncon.
I read this several years ago, lovely book. So will release it today in one of the little free libraries.
At Preston St. Mary