Suite Francaise

Even though I'm still working this week (just for a few hours more!) I decided to go ahead and commence with the reading of the new books I got a few weeks ago. I thought I was saving them to read during my time off but I was wrong. I was saving them for right now.

I am currently reading a book called Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. So far, it's fantastic. I had started reading it once before, a few years ago, but since I had borrowed it from the library, I had to return it before I could finish. But now I own it and can read it as slowly as I'd like and no one can stop me from finishing.

From Amazon.com:

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, their homes, even in their hearts.

I think it's no secret that I love books about Europe during WWII. And I think it is so incredibly interesting when books that have been undiscovered are suddenly found years later and published after the author has died. So it's only natural that I would love this book. The author, Irene Nemirovsky, was a Russian Jew living in France in the 1940s. She was captured and taken to Auschwitz where she died in 1942. But her children escaped with her manuscripts and kept them hidden until they were finally published in 2004. That's sixty two years, people. And that is amazing.