The second world war classic of life under Nazi occupation. N-rovsky was sent to Auschwitz in 1942.
In 1941, Ir- sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. N-rovsky''s death in Auschwitz in 1942 prevented her from seeing the day, sixty-five years later, that the existing two sections of her planned novel sequence, Suite Fran-se, would be rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece.
Set during the year that France fell to the Nazis, Suite Fran-se falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation. Suite Fran-se is a novel that teems with wonderful characters struggling with the new regime. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope.