Born in Kiev in 1903, Irene Nemirovsky fled the Russian Revolution for France where she became an acclaimed novelist. She wrote over 10 novels, including the unfinished magnum opus Suite Francaise which was published posthumously in France in 2004 and has become an international bestseller. She died in Auschwitz in 1942.
Suite Francaise
The forgotten masterpiece of war-torn France
The forgotten masterpiece of war-torn France
Genre:
IN 1941, AS THE Nazis occupied France, Irène Némirovsky began to write an epic work to convey what her fellow country people were going through. It could not be published in Nazi occupied France and so became lost in time. Sixty years later, long after her death in Auschwitz, Némirovsky’s manuscript was rediscovered in the early 1990s by her daughter and published to international acclaim.
Set during the year of France’s fall to Nazi Germany, the book is a sweeping portrait of a nation. A group of Parisians flee the invasion and make their way through the chaos of their once proud country. Némirovsky packs her book with vivid characters from aristocrats to bankers to factory workers and farm labourers. In all the turmoil and despair true nobility emerges, often where you would least expect it.
This is a publishing miracle where the novel’s remarkable tale almost eclipses the brilliant story within its pages.
About the Author
Related books
‘The screen door bangs shut. The silence that follows is like the collective intake of breath between the split second a guillotine falls and when it thuds home … Unable to get a clear shot, he rips the bed away from the wall. I scream as the first lick of the electric cord stings my back …’
Imagine a gaggle of little children sitting down to dinner with their mother when suddenly everything goes black. You can’t see in front of you but you know you must hide. Daddy’s home. He’s turned off the power – and he’s coming for you, any one of you.
In her first novel Nikki Gemmell delves into the emotional depth of love and loss set in the wilderness of Antarctica. A young woman gets the chance of a lifetime. To go to ‘the land of mythical tragedies, the place of ships’ hulls being crushed by ice, of long journeys into darkness and death, of soles falling from feet and being strapped back on, of teeth freezing and splitting, fingers dying, toenails coming away, mates disappearing through holes in the ice, mates walking away into blizzards, saying I’m just going outside and may be some time and never coming back…’
Living the good life in the Blue Mountains in NSW with her husband, four grown-up children and four (and counting) grandchildren, Mary Moody’s life was full. At fifty, she had built a satisfying career as a writer and television presenter which allowed her time to look after her family, house and garden. The only thing missing was time for herself, a chance to reflect on life and its meaning. Like many women of her generation, caught up with the commitments of work and family, Mary had never had a moment alone – so she decided to say au revoir.
Daniel Rooke has sailed with the First Fleet to New South Wales. Setting up an observatory, he begins the scientific work he hopes will make him famous. But the place proves far more revelatory than the night sky, and when Rooke forges a connection with one Aboriginal child it changes his life in ways he never imagined. In this compelling novel about friendship and selfdiscovery, Kate Grenville returns to the landscape of her muchloved bestseller The Secret River.
When a man slaps another man’s child at a suburban barbecue the effect on those gathered is profound. Divided over the event and how to deal with it, family and friends are forced to question their lives, expectations, beliefs and desires.
Sex, love, marriage and parenting are all up for grabs. This award-winning novel is both a forensic dissection of contemporary Australia’s aspirations and fears and a potent exploration of loyalty, happiness, compromise and truth.
Three children wake to find themselves in a basement room. They have been drugged and taken from their beds in the middle of the night. Now they are alone. Where are their parents? Who can they trust?
The Book of Rapture is a novel of our time, challenging our beliefs about religion, science and truth. Searing, provocative and unputdownable, it’s every bit as passionate and driven as The Bride Stripped Bare. It will compel, seduce and haunt you.
WHEN NADEZHA’S MOTHER DIES, her father wastes no time in shipping in a new bride from the Ukraine. With a chest as fake as her bleached blonde hair, Valentina is Nadezha’s every nightmare and worse. As Valentina digs her claws in, the hilarious attempts by Nadezha and her sister to get rid of her grow increasingly desperate.
Monica Lewycka draws the perfect balance between the hilarious comedy of family relationships and the terrible experiences of post-war Eastern Europe.
IT IS 1934, AND aboard the ‘Better Farming Train’, an earthy romance develops between an idealistic scientist and a talented young seamstress.
The unlikely couple settle in the impoverished Mallee with the ambition of proving that science can transform the land. But with failing crops and another world war looming, they are forced to confront each other and the fragile earth around them.
Erotic, wise and funny, this exquisite novel evokes the Australian landscape in all its stark beauty and vividly captures the hope and disappointment of an era.
WELCOME TO THE LIVES of Australian women in their fifties. Liz Byrski’s novel of three convent school girls renewing their friendship forty years on has delighted readers with its perfect portrayal of contemporary life.
ANNABELLE BECK IS ATTEMPTING to escape the end of her marriage by returning to her family home in tropical North Queensland. Rather than quietly licking her wounds alone, she meets Bo Rennie, a stockman from the Jangga tribe who she first met years ago as a child. Bo mysteriously claims to hold the key to her future.