SUITE FRANCAISE (Vintage International) Paperback – Illustrated, 10 April 2007
Irene Nemirovsky . Vintage Books . English
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control during World War II—a heartrending "portrait of a small French town under seige, and the people trying to survive, even to live, as Hitler’s horrors march closer and closer to their doors" (New York). “Stunning.... A tour de force.” —The New York Times Book Review Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, 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. When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.
Categories: Action & Adventure
About the Author
Sandra Smith was born and raised in New York City. As an undergraduate, she spent one year studying at the Sorbonne and fell in love with Paris. Immediately after finishing her BA, she was accepted to do a Master's Degree at New York University, in conjunction with the Sorbonne, and so lived in Paris for another year. After completing her MA, she moved to Cambridge, where she began teaching 20th Century French Literature, Modern French Drama and Translation at the University. Soon afterwards, she was accepted to study for a PhD at Clare College, researching the Surrealist Theatre in France between the two World Wars. Sandra Smith taught French Literature and Language at Robinson College, University of Cambridge for many years and has been a guest lecturer and professor at Columbia University, Harvard and Sarah Lawrence College. She currently lives in Minneapolis and teaches for NYU. Literary/Translation Prizes for 'Suite française': Winner of the Pen Book of the Month Club Translation Prize (USA) 2006 Winner of the French-American Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize (USA) 2007 The Quill Award, USA, shortlisted for Book of the Year 2006, General Fiction category. (The only book in translation shortlisted.) Jewish Quarterly Wingate Literary Prize for Fiction 2006. Shortlisted. British Book Awards: Border's Book of the Year 2006. Shortlisted. The Oxford Weidenfeld Prize for French Translation. Shortlisted. Independent Newspaper Foreign Fiction Prize: only open to living authors, so ineligible, but awarded a 'Special Commendation' by the panel 19 January 2007. Literary/Translation Prizes for Other Works: 'But You Did Not Come Back' by Marceline Loridan-Ivens, National Jewish Book Award, 2017: Winner 'The Prodigal Child' by Irène Némirovsky, Jewish Book Award, 2022: Finalist 'Inseparable' by Simone de Beauvoir, French-American Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize 2022: Finalist
