Suite Francaise

In the early 1960s, Irene Nemirovsky - a writer of Ukrainian descent residing in Paris with her husband and daughter - started working on Suite Francaise, the first two sections of a projected five-part book. It is a dazzling depiction of a fictional/historical drama where Irene turns herself into a victim. Suite Francaise is a great, tremendously emotional piece of art that evokes life and death in Paris in a way that is both delicate and harsh, sincerely empathetic and furiously sardonic.

At the time, she was a very accomplished author already. However, she was a Jew, too, and in 1942, she was imprisoned and sent to Auschwitz; she died a month later at the age of 39. Her completed, handwritten manuscripts were placed in a suitcase that her children would carry into concealment, and finally, freedom. After sixty-four years, it was released in 2004, and the world could finally have the chance to read Nemirovsky's literary masterwork.

Author: Irene Nemirovsky

Year of Release: 2004

Goodreads Score: 3.83 stars (from 71,355 reviews)