Suite Française ~ by Irène Némirovsky, 2006

Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy — in their town, in their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown. When Suite Française appeared in France in 2004, it became a best seller. The novel is in two parts, which could be called novellas: "Storm in June" and "Dolce." The New York Times published a review of the book when it was published in 2006, giving us some background information:

Némirovsky had more plans for Suite Française, as an appendix to this volume makes clear. In her notebook, she sketched the possibility of a work in five parts. "Storm in June" and "Dolce" were to be followed by: "3. Captivity; 4. Battles?; 5. Peace?" The question marks punctuate Némirovsky's peculiar problem; she was trying to write a historical novel while the outcome of that history remained unknown. The fourth and fifth parts of the book "are in limbo," she observed, "and what limbo! It's really in the lap of the gods since it depends on what happens."

Irène Némirovsky died without every knowing the outcome of World War Two, and we, unfortunately, will never know how she might have written other parts of the book. Here's the first chapter, if you want to get started right away.

Getting started
Chapter 1 ~ can be read online
What we said about the book
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Storm in June (War), Ch 1-20
Storm in June (War), Ch 21-31
Dolce (Occupation), Ch 1-22
Appendix (1 = author's notes, 2 = correspondence)
Preface to the French Edition