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Suite Francaise
 
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Suite Francaise (Hardcover)

by Irene Nemirovsky (Author), Sandra Smith (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (79 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus; New edition edition (2 Mar 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0701178965
  • ISBN-13: 978-0701178963
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 89,766 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #9 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > N > Nemirovsky, Irene

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Product Description

Review
"THE FRENCH PRESS 'A masterpiece... saved from oblivion.' Le Monde 'The most important novel of the year.' Livres Hebdo "It is hard to find a comparable book in French literature.' Lire THE BRITISH PRESS: 'A book of exceptional literary quality... it has the kind of intimacy found in the diary of Anne Frank.' TLS 'Remarkable as the story of the publication of Suite Francaise is, it will finally be of anecdotal interest compared with the importance of the book. Here is the work of a fine novelist at the top of her form, writing about the fate of her adopted country with a pitiless clarity.' Patrick Marnham Evening Standard 'An heroic attempt to write a novel about a nightmare in which the author is entirely embedded.' Anita Brookner, Spectator"

London Review of Books
"Ecstatically received by French critics, and reawakened the controversy about wartime collaboration."

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Customer Reviews

79 Reviews
5 star:
 (53)
4 star:
 (13)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not your average novel, 16 May 2006
By Nordie (Lisburn, N. Ireland) - See all my reviews
I had read several reviews and deliberated before, finally, making my purchase. Simply to read this novel does not portray the entire experience. The characters in the book are convincingly real, but what I found surprising, was the way in which Irene depicted the occupying forces, not as brutes en masse, but as individuals, each capable of many acts of kindness and consideration.
Once read, it is vital to read the material in the appendices and to consider the times in which these people lived and their total helplessness, in a situation beyond their comprehension.
There are books which stay with you for a while, this one will stay with me forever!
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Absence of hindsight lends extraordinary freshness, 24 April 2006
By K. Paver "kenpaver" (Solihull) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is so fresh and interesting because it was written during the war, without the benefit of hindsight. The world didn't know about the death camps at that time - the author may have suspected, or even known, that a terrible fate awaited her by the time she hid the manuscript, but while she was actually writing, the big story was the German invasion and France's defeat. The culmination of the Nazi "final solution", and the subsequent process of holocaust memorialization, was still in the future at that point.

So what we get is a description of France in the early part of the war that is startling in its immediacy precisely because it is not coloured by a knowledge of what occurred during the rest of the war. Do any other contemporary accounts achieve this admittedly accidental and ultimately extraordinarily sad effect? Today's readers know what happened. The author didn't.

Suite Francaise is fresh, surprising and heart-rending - and extremely interesting from a historical documentary standpoint. The writer ain't no JP Sartre - it's pretty absurd to compare her with him - but it's worth a read for the insights it brings. The shortcomings in plotting and structure are pretty irrelevant given the work's other strengths.
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59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, a must- read for the present about the past, 13 Mar 2006
I think this is a wonderful book, so moving and beautifully written that you realize after only a few pages, that you are reading a timeless classic, something that will endure for ever in the same way as the great works of Tolstoy or Flaubert. Actually the author has all the lyricism of Tolstoy - and the breadth of vision - but doesn't hammer on about her 'message' as he can do. Think of those passages in Anna Karenina where the great man begins to describe Levin and the ideal life in the country. There is none of this in Suite Francaise. And the wonder of it is that you don't realize the author was Jew living life on borrowed time , exiled to the French countryside and with the full knowledge of what this invasion meant for her personally and her family. There is no fear in the book. It is essentially and creatively feminine. That Irene N. was about to be taken and killed , that she was a Jew in the middle of a European abomination , that never intrudes. You don't read the book for what the author suffered, despite her knowledge of her own personal perilous position, she just lets her art take over so what we get is a timeless brilliant classic which is so much more of an amazing legacy to her and those who died than any personalized or angled account could ever have been. What real heroism to do this, what an achievement, to rise about the fear and humiliation and write this wonderful work. And the translation is fantastic just because we don't notice it specially. Sandra Smith ( translators like editors are surely born to live in the shadows ) has done a fabulous job in not making the book seem at all foreign. There are no jarring phrases and odd distracting foreignisms that often get in the way of really enjoying a great work like this . Of course we are reading Irene Nemirovsky but every word on the page is Smith's and they are all beautifully chosen to match the lyricism of the original.
This is one of the most important books to emerge for years and, it sounds rather plangent but a triumph of life and art over he forces of death and ignorance.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writing
This is a wonderful piece of writing (though I must take the translator to task for not knowing the difference between "lie" and "lay" . Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Jean D. Andrews

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Suite Francaise
I'd read incredible reviews of Suite Francaise and was expecting it to be very good. However, I have to say that so far I am a bit disappointed. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Steph78

5.0 out of 5 stars World War II Historical Fiction
Irene Nemirovsky had already published several acclaimed and popular novels during her lifetime before starting Suite Francaise which was published posthumously after her daughter... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Douglas P. Murphy

2.0 out of 5 stars too long in the reading
This has been a slow and rather tedious read for me. I do wonder whether if we had not known the history of the author's own life it would still have been received with such... Read more
Published 3 months ago by A reader from

5.0 out of 5 stars Suite Francaise
I read the appendices first, then the book and then the appendices again which gave them more meaning.. Read more
Published 4 months ago by fionnula

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnifique
Irene Nemirovsky's own life story would fill the pages of a tragic novel, as her family navigated the turbulent currents of history. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Chuck E

3.0 out of 5 stars Unfinished memoir of life under occupation
l greedily read this book due to all the positive publicity.It is a terrific insight into the proud French spirit being cowed by the might of Germany. Read more
Published 6 months ago by D. Glowacki

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
Contrary to other reviewers, I found this book rather boring. Indeed, I have shelved the book whilst only two-thirds of the way through. Read more
Published 8 months ago by C. Elizabeth Read

5.0 out of 5 stars Unfinished masterpiece
Suite Francaise sat on my permanent "mountain" of waiting-to-be-read books for about a year, unopened. Had I only known... Read more
Published 8 months ago by I LOVE BOOKS

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling....though provoking
This book really surprised me. I read it after I'd read an article about the author in a newspaper, not really thinking it was my thing, but it was! Read more
Published 10 months ago by Teresa White

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