Monday Fiction Book Rec

So, while browsing at the bookstore last week, I remembered I had a reading list from some author buddies of mine and on the list and on the table in front of me was Irene Nemirosky's Suite Francaise, a literary novel telling the events of Nazi-occupied France in 1940 and 1941. However, this novel was written by a woman who actually lived there during those years and who later died in Auschwitz. This novel, handwritten in a notebook, was in the possession of her daughter for over 50 years before being published to great acclaim in France in 2004.

According to Wikipedia,

"Némirovsky's surviving notes sketch a general outline of a story arc that was intended to include the two existing novellas, as well as three more to take place later during the war and at its end. She wrote that the rest of the work was "in limbo, and what limbo! It's really in the lap of the gods since it depends on what happens."

In a January 2006 interview with the BBC, her daughter, Denise, said, "For me, the greatest joy is knowing that the book is being read. It is an extraordinary feeling to have brought my mother back to life. It shows that the Nazis did not truly succeed in killing her. It is not vengeance, but it is a victory."

I have only just begun Suite Francaise, but I'm excited to read the book and I plan to pick up the other novel by Nemirovsky that was recently translated and published earlier this year, Fire in the Blood.

I'll let you know what I think.

Playing on the iPod: City (Sara Bareilles)