Readers Place

About the Book

In 1941, Irène Némirovsky sat down to write a work that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through, not in terms of battles and politicians, but by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. She did not live to see her ambition fulfilled, or to know that sixty-five years later, Suite Française would be published for the first time, and hailed as a masterpiece. Set during a year that begins with France s fall to the Nazis in June 1940 and ends with Germany turning its attention to Russia, Suite Française falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion and make their way through the chaos of France; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation who find themselves thrown together in ways they never expected. Némirovsky s brilliance as a writer lay in her portrayal of people, and this is a novel that teems with wonderful characters, each more vivid than the next. Haughty aristocrats, bourgeois bankers and snobbish aesthetes rub shoulders with uncouth workers and bolshy farmers. Women variously resist or succumb to the charms of German soldiers. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places. Irene Némirovsky conceived of Suite Française as a four- or five-part novel. It was to be a symphony her War and Peace . Although only two sections were finished before her tragic death, they tell a story that is beautifully complete in itself, and awe-inspiring in its understanding of humanity.

Starting Points for Discussion

• Can you tell that Suite Française was written in the same period as the events it describes?

• Contemporary culture is bombarded with images of conflict and violence. Do you feel that this novel contributes anything new to your understanding of war?

• How well does Némirovsky portray France and what does she tell you about that country?

• Many of the characters find themselves facing moral dilemmas. Find three such dilemmas and discuss the characters’ choices.

• Which character do you find most sympathetic, and whom do you like least?

• Although Némirovsky was Jewish, Jews are barely mentioned in this novel. Is it nevertheless possible to get some idea of what Némirovsky felt about religion?

• If you and your fellow citizens were forced, for some reason, to flee your homes today, how similar do you think people’s behaviour would be to that of Némirovsky’s characters?

Other Books by Irene Nemirovsky

• 

  All Our Worldly Goods

  In haunting ways this wonderful, compelling novel prefigures Suite Française…

  Reading Guide

• 

  David Golder

  Translated by Sandra Smith, with an introduction by Patrick Marnham. In 1929,…

  Buy Now

• 

  Fire in the Blood

  This perfect gem of a novel by the author of the posthumously acclaimed and …

  Reading Guide

Suggested Further Reading

• The Night Watch ~ Sarah Waters
• Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country’s Hidden Past ~ Giles Tremlett
• Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and Fatherland ~ Carmen Callil
• The People’s Act of Love ~ James Meek
• A Woman in Berlin ~ Anonymous
• Those Who Trespass Against Us: One Woman’s War Against the Nazis ~ Karolina Lanckoronska