Suite Francaise

You may have heard about this one. Irene Nemirovsky planned to write a five-part novel set in occupied France during WWII. She wrote the 1st two parts but was then arrested and taken to Auschwitz where she died a short time later. Her daughters, who survived the Nazis, carried her papers with them for years before realizing what they actually contained. Suite Francaise is the first two parts of the novel; what a pity the work went unfinished. Nevertheless, SF is wonderful. Her descriptions are beautiful and vivid. The first novella, if you will, follows several families and individuals as they flee the Nazi invasion of Paris. In the second, the French farmers try to carry on with life in the French countryside during the occupation by the German invaders. In both stories, the focus is on individuals and how they handle life as prisoners in their own country. In both stories you gain insight into the human realities of living through a war.