Suite Francaise

Written by Irene Nemirovsky

Narrated by Carole Boyd

In June 1940 France fell to the Nazis. The effects of this momentous event on the lives of ordinary Parisians and the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation are brilliantly explored in Irène Némirovsky's gripping and heartbreaking novel. Némirovsky herself was a tragic victim of the Nazi regime but she left behind her this exceptional masterpiece. In Suite Française she conjures up a vivid cast of wonderful characters who find themselves thrown together in ways they never expected. Amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House UK Audio
• Release date: Apr 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781446469149

Reviews for Suite Francaise

[danielstj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A literary powerhouse. By far, one of the most moving and mesmerizing novels that I have ever had the pleasure to come across. The story takes you along the path as if you were there and all the little moments come across as whispers across the void that World War II has set into place. There are tragedies and sorrows, loving and friendship and victories and defeats. This is an AMAZING book that should be read by anyone who has any interest in the author or the subject matter. In-fact, it is such a illuminating tale that I believe it should be read by ANYONE who is studying the era. Nemirovsky met a tragic end, but her angelic wings still shine through in this piece-- and that is something that no one can ever take away from her. I would give this more than five stars if I was able.

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I still want to read the notes and letters in the appendixes, but I'm finished with the main duet of novels.

Tempete en Juin follows different families as they flee Paris ahead of the German invasion. Most will be driven back and they experience kindness and cruelty on the way.

Dolce takes place in a village, about a year later when the inhabitants have to billet German soldiers for three months. The most tension forms around the fact that these are young men and the young women of the village have not seen any for a while. The way that the relationships develop differs for each family.

I could be biased by the history of the author, who was there for the invasion and did not survive the war, but I felt like a had a real window into history and how people were at that moment and place in time. It's beautifully written. What an amazing treasure that her daughters were able to save.

[karenduff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I found this book very moving although I'm not sure if that is due entirely to the story or to the reasons for it being unfinished.
I liked the fact that one of the more likeable characters is a german, that she didn't go down the road of french good german bad.

[librarycin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is an unfinished novel in two parts (originally meant to be in 5 parts), written by a Russian woman of Jewish background, who had been living in France as a Catholic for a number of years. Nemirovsky was killed in Auschwitz in 1942 before she could finish the book. The novel focuses on regular people in France during WWII. In the first part of the book, people are being evacuated from Paris. They later return, only to have to share their homes with German soldiers. The book was o.k., but I really only found one small storyline particularly interesting... really one character. There were a lot of characters, but because the book wasn't holding my attention, I couldn't really keep them straight. The only reason it is getting 3 stars is for that one storyline. There was a note at the end of the book about Nemirovsky's own life, which to be honest, I found more interesting than most of the rest of the book.

[nittnut · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Set in France, this book is in two parts. Part one - Storm in June - depicts the panicked evacuation of Paris and the surrounding area as France surrenders and the Germans occupy. Part two - Dolce - depicts life in a small rural town during the German occupation. Part one is tense and rushed and there are bombs and planes and people dying. Part two is calm, quiet, but with a sense that life could go on just as it is forever. I thought that the endless calm of occupation was just as gut wrenching as the tension and fear of the first part. Most of the characters are unrelated, or only vaguely intersect. While this makes the flow of the story choppy, as a device it enhances the sense of uncertainty and the randomness of events. I thought this book was more of a study of human nature; how beliefs translate into action or inaction and how humans respond to stress, than a story of actual people or of the War specifically.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow.I read half of this when it was first published in English, and lost it to a library queue. I started over, needless to say.This story is incredible. That she was writing it essentially as it was occurring is more amazing. The story of the manuscript's survival is amazing (her elder daughter carried it with her in hiding in France, thinking it was a diary, not a manuscript). The notes she wrote about the rest of her planned 5-book work are so enticing. But of course she did not get to finish, being arrested just a day after her previous notes on the next book. And obviously she was not able to help refine the manuscript for publication. Yet it flows and is fascinating--though she clearly set out her goals in her many notes.———The first book, Storm in June, captures the many classes of people fleeing 1942 Paris for the countryside as the Germans are coming. We meet members of several different families--rich and poor, upper middle and working classes. Each have their own concerns: their stuff, their children, food. The second book, Dolce, examines the people in a small occupied French town. Most families have German soldiers living with them, many of husbands and sons who are POWs in Germany. The balance everyone tries to strike between French/German is tenuous. The balance between upper class rich landowners, landowner/farmers, farmers, and tradesmen adds an additional layer of loyalties (or not) to the book. Some of the characters from book 1 are mentioned.If Nemirovsky had been able to finish her 5 books, we would have seen the same characters loop back into the story. Her notes are interesting, as she did not yet know where the story would go--it depended on what was happening in the actual war. Book 3 was beginning to take shape in her mind, but does not appear to have been begun.———Nemirovsky was a well-known and well-regarded French writer before the war. Those earlier books may be worth looking for.

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What can I say? It is a miracle that this book was even published and a tragedy that it was never finished. The story behind the book is even more heartbreaking than the story, which is beautiful and moving and sad. I liked Part II better than Part I and think it was more fully realized and more fully finished. As wonderful as the book is, it's certainly just a shadow of what the book could have been and would have been had Nemirovsky lived to complete it. The real tragedy isn't that the book wasn't finished but that Nemirovsky and so many others had to die the way they did.

[larrypsy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An adult ANNE FRANK

[slowwalker-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A masterpiece!!

[artiluna · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It is a disservice to Irene Nemirovsky to write "A novel" beneath the title Suite Francaise. What this is, is a beautiful fragment of a novel that will never be published because of tragedy. To call it a novel is inviting people to judge it as a complete story, but unfortunately Ms. Nemirovsky was not able to finish this novel because of her murder during the Holocaust. If we are going to go digging into author's lives and find fragments of their writing that were not approved for public consumption by the author, we must not try and present it as the finished project. As anyone who writes knows, a rough draft and a final novel can be two different stories entirely.

[ladycato · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This isn't just a work of historical fiction, this is a tragedy. The author's own tale is even more dramatic than that of her characters. Nemirovsky, of Jewish and Russian origin, wrote the two novellas of Suite Francaise while hiding with her family in the French countryside during World War II. She was then arrested, and a month later she was killed in Auschwitz. Her manuscripts were toted around by her very young daughters during the duration of the war, and were not published in France until a few years ago.The novellas evoke what would have been current events for Nemirovsky. Storm in June follows several families of all social castes and attitudes as they flee Paris before the German invasion. The second novella, Dolce, focuses on the German occupation of a French village. The thing that struck me most was the author's fairness in dealing with these very real people. There is no propaganda here, or hatred against the Germans. If anything, her argument is that everyone is human, and that extraordinary circumstances bring out the worst in French and Germans alike. This is particularly moving considering how Nemirosky died.The appendix and letters in the back detail the the author's writing method, her family history, and the desperate letters sent by her husband and publishers in trying to gain Nemirovsky's release.

[megantron-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A ridiculous, sentimental cover for an unsentimental novel that was published posthumously. Nemirovsky's voice is surprisingly witty and tough as nails; heartbreaking that she would never have a chance to finish her French suite-- she died in Auschwitz at the age of 39.

This is the most honest book I've read that looks at the lives of women during wartime. Nemirovsky romanticizes nothing.

[cailin_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's hard to believe this book was written almost 70 years ago! Be sure to read the background articles available about the author when you read this book. It is an amazing story!

[ames3473 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was really interested in reading this book after learning about the author. Irene Nemirovsky was a Jew living in France during WWII. She & her husband were both killed in a concentration camp at Auschwitz. Her daughter came upon some notebooks of her mother's & discovered these novellas as well as some others. They were only discovered in the 1990s & published by her daughter. That alone should be enough to make anyone want to read these novellas! What an extraordinary find!

[karenk_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Slow start. I didn't like most of the characters in the "Storm" section. Once I got to the "Dolce" portion though, I was hooked. Her notes at the end were the most moving part of the book. What a sad story!

[plenilune · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is excellent. You need to do yourself a favor: stop reading this and go get this book. It may be difficult to keep track of all of the different characters, particularly in the first section, but it is well worth the effort. Nemirovsky managed to create dozens of characters, each unique and meticulously crafted, some likable and some detestable, and placed them in the tumultuous landscape of her contemporary occupied France. Meant to be a five-part novel of epic scale, Nemirovsky only had the chance to write the first two sections, both of which could stand on their own merits as individual books. Imagine what she could have done had she not been sent to Auschwitz due to her Jewish heritage. I highly, highly recommend this book . Don't neglect the two appendices! They are captivating and will break your heart.

[bachaney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"Suite Francaise" provides a wonderful human view on the chaos of World War II, a perspective of the conflict that is not often captured. It is a wonderful read, but the author's tragic end leaves you wishing for more once you reach it's end. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a fresh story of the Second World War.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book essentially contains two novellas, the first involves the evacuation of Paris in the face of WWII German invasion. The second tells the story of the German occupation of a small French village. I enjoyed the first half of the first novella. However, midway through the first story and throughout the second, despite beautiful prose and outstanding writing, I found myself frequently bored. There are long stretches where virtually nothing happens. Perhaps I am a literary philistine, but the most beautiful writing in the world cannot mask a boring story, or one which moves at a glacial pace. There is certainly rich material here for more than the author accomplished. Beautiful writing and a captivating story are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to have both and, in my opinion, the author fails in the latter.

[eesti23 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Suite Francaise is the partial story of France and its occupants when the Germans arrived during WW2. The story is unfinished as the author herself was sent to Auschwitz by the Germans. However the story that we are provided with, which is split into two parts, is amazing and draws you right in. From the Parisians fleeing the German invasion to the relationships between the French village members and the occupying German soldiers.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm floating from my reading this week. The Accidental was so magnificent that I'd read it in little bites, holding off finishing it as long as I could. Then Suite Francaise arrived on my doorstep and it, too, was so excellent I could barely believe it. This week it has felt like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery both insisted on accompanying me to the prom.What an amazing story to go along with Suite Francaise! (I keep waiting for some horrible Million Little Pieces revelation to come out about it...please, please, don't let this happen.) The book was written in the early 1940's by a woman who died at Auschwitz. The manuscript was saved in a suitcase all these years by the author's daughters who assumed it was a memoir and could not bear to read it. Beautiful writing. Beautiful. The story flows, weaving around the cast of characters, in a place that felt so real I kept wanting to stop and breathe it in. The story centers on the mass exodus from Paris as the Germans are taking over France. Last fall, my family and I fled south Texas as Hurricane Rita crept closer and closer to our homes; I connected completely with this story. Suite Francaise is almost too good to be true, almost like I slipped inside a time machine, with a tour guide to boot. Reading it makes me want to send out a worldwide call to everyone to search their houses, to scramble through those old suitcases, to ramble through the attics; if even one more paragraph like those in Suite Francaise would result from the search, it would be worth it.

[kcollins1107 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book after hearing it mentioned because of the long delay in it'e publication. I was transfixed by this book. I could think of nothing else while I was reading it. I knew, pretty much, what the ending would be but strangely this did not effect my 'enjoyment' or experience in the reading of it. At the end there is biographical info but more than that is excerpts from Irene's journals and letters as she was fleeing the Nazi's and conceiving of and writing her book. It is extraordinary. She also writes about her process in writing or at least in conceiving of the work as a piece of music. What an enormous loss. This is one of the best books I have read in years.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A lovely novel that intertwines the stories of several French citizens and their efforts to survive the Nazi invasion and occopuation. Nemirovsky does a fine job of conveying the hardships of day-to-day living for her well-drawn characters.

[elsieb_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Incredible book. You begin reading it knowing the tragedy of the writer but that does fade as the story takes hold. The prose is wonderfully written and you feel as if you are living through it, as the characters. So wonderful too, to get the French perspective. One forgets how that country was so ravaged by the occupation.

[kidsilkhaze · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is worth every once of hype it got when it came out. For those that missed it, this is a translation of the recently discovered manuscript by Nemirovsky. A French Jew, She wrote it in the summer of 1942 and was working on it when she was deported by the occupying Nazi forces. She died shortly thereafter. It was supposed to be a 5-novel Suite and she only finished the first two-- Storm in June and Dolce before she was taken. This edition carries both novels as well as her journal entries for the summer (detailing her plans for the unwritten volumes as well as changes she wanted to make to the previous two, as they are still just drafts.) It also carries her correspondance of the time period (as she tried to get funds after her publisher was barred from paying her royalties because she was Jewish) and that of her husband and various people after she was taken as they were trying to get word on her condition.But turning to the novels themselves... Storm in June covers the flight from Paris as the Nazi forces approach. Large columns of refugees of different social standings tell their entertwined stories as they travel south. Nemirovsky's cast of characters is huge and their stories are all the same, yet all different as the real lives of Parisian refugees were. Their terror and panic as they travel the countryside is palpable. She follows in Dolce focusing on a French village we met in Storm in June as they deal with the occupation. Some village members oppose the German forces, and some support them. I was amazed at how humanely she treats those who cooperate. Their reasons for doing so are multi-fold and deep and well thought out with no hint of rationalization.Althought the storeis are entertwined, she avoids the obvious ways she could have intermeshed these lives further, which makes her work all the more wonderful. She paints the citizens of her adopted country (she emigrated to France from Ukraine) and its landscapes and daily life with close attention to detail and a beauty and lushness of language. These drafts of novels are more polished than several books I have read lately.One can only hope that the success of this book will lead to more translations of her earlier work, as this is an author that deserves more recognition in the English world.

[bblum_10 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a wonderful novel with excellent charaterizations about a variety of people who flee Paris boefore the impending arrival of the Nazis. The descriptions of the upper class are particulary fun to read. Eventually, all the charaters have only one or two degrees of seaparation. It is an unusal book as little is written about Vichy France and the German occupation. The young women who befriend the young Nazi soldiers will ultimately be humiliated as collaborators at the end of the war. A remarkable book.

[murraymint11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had a certain Tolstoy feel to the writing and structure. I found it hard to keep track of all the different characters throughout the book - I wonder whether this was because the names were French? I preferred part 1; I could picture the scenes of panic and confusion during the flight from Paris very easily. Part 2 didn't engage me as much.

[clamato_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best book I read in 2006. The story behind this book is equally good and she was a fascinating if conflicted woman. It's our loss that she wasn't able to finish the book the way she had hoped and planned.

[ablueidol · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You are a decent sort of person, respect the neighbours, keep on the right side of the law. But if you could die in the next few days as you flee your home, possessions and community what then? Could you keep decent, fair minded and above board? These are questions that Irene Nemirovsky explores.In the first section, Storm in June she explores the impact of the fall of Paris in June 1940 and like a pebble dropping into a pool we follow how this affects the life of various families and individuals. The Pericand's are an upper middle class family who flee and in the course of the flight the two sons, Hubert and Phillipe discover to fateful costs the depth of their political or religious pretensions. In Gabriel Corte the emptiness and selfishness of many intellectuals is explored and exposed. Or with other characters how the ordinary working class people were mistreated and trampled over.This is not a history book but a moving story where we dip in and out of peoples lives as they deal with extraordinary events. In the second section, Dolce she explores how French and German lives interweave with each other in a small village two years after the invasion. Some of these characters and events have been touched on in the first section of the book but both sides have virtues and flaws. The writing and tone is superb and runs in the French naturalism tradition(think Zola).Given the humanity of the writing and the story, its deepens the tragedy that she had escaped the death camps of the Russian Revolution only to die in Auschwitz. These fragments of a planned 5 part novel survived as her young children grabbed the diary as a memento of their mother whilst fleeing and hiding amongst relatives and friends. Their father also being snatched and dying in Auschwitz, a few months after their mother. The daughters found it too painful to read and so didn't discover until the 90's that the small bearable print was in fact the two sections of this novel.Weep for what may have been and enjoy what we have. Highly recommended even for us fellows.

[mrstreme · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fear, panic, sorrow, defiance, tragedy and compassion - these are all words that I would use to describe this novel. Imagine air raids, the fear of bombs and guns, and having to leave your home with whatever you can fit into your car, bicycle basket or suitcase. Imagine having to open your home up to enemy soldiers, giving up your horses and food - and to do it without complaint or protest. It's unimagineable to me.I found the first section of the novel ("Storm") to be slightly more interesting than the second section ("Dolce"). But the entire novel is masterful and suspenseful - if you like novels set in World War II, then I would highly recommend this novel.Also, make sure to read the appendices. It outlines Nemirovsky's plan for the third novel as well as contains correspondence about her arrest. A very fascinating addition to this already fascinating "back story."

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel tells the story of France's surrender to, and occupation by, the German army in WWII. It is divided into two parts: Storm and Dolce. They are only loosely related to each other, with very few characters in common.The writing is masterful in terms of drawing very moving, at times shocking, portraits of individuals dealing with the war and the occupation of France. The books works better as a series of inter-related portraits than as a novel; however, reading the appendices sheds light on how the author planned to weave things together. No doubt she would have pulled this off. The author was a Russian Jew killed by the Nazis in WWII.