October book:
Thanks Margaret for your hospitality - it was great though we had little to say about the book, Carpentaria. Marg was the most advanced, having read 4 chapters. The rest of us failed to engage even earlier.
Better luck next time with Infidel, when I am sure we will have something to say. Then in October, here is the book:
Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky Chatto & Windus $23.95
The first English publication of Suite Francaise - sixty five years after it was written. Already a bestseller in France, it has captured reader's imaginations, not only for the tragic story of its author, and the circumstances of its rediscovery, but for its brilliantly subtle and compelling portrait of France under occupation.
Description of the Book SUITE FRANCAISE has all the ingredients of a major bestseller: the story behind its rediscovery is extraordinary; the life of the author is fascinating and moving; but, most importantly, it is a hugely compelling work of literature, elegantly, subtly and simply written, with astounding insight into the moral complexities of the human condition. It comprises two parts of what might have been a four or five-part work had Irene not been taken to Auschwitz. She conceived of it as a symphony - or her WAR AND PEACE. In the first part, Storm in June, she tells of the exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion. Bourgeois and working-class characters alike pack up their belongings and flee, forced to rub shoulders in traffic-jams on the crowded roads south, some behaving with dignity, others with nauseating selfishness. In Part Two, Dolce, we meet several of them again in a small French village where Nazi soldiers are billetted, and watch Lucille's story unfold as she tries to resist the attractions of a sensitive German officer, and takes the risk of defending a young farmer who joins the resistance. The intertwining stories of all these utterly engaging and vivid characters combine to produce a unique portrait of France at that time, and of the subtle calibrations that exist between collaboration and resistance.
Review"Every page shines with a ravishing delight in the surfaces of life, and a profound empathy for the souls of its characters" - Canberra Times 18/03/06
"Even in its incomplete form Suite Francaise is one of those rare books that demands to be read" - Sun Herald 26/03/06
"Suite Francaise will become a classic" - Courier Mail 25/03/06
The French press:'A masterpiece. saved from oblivion.' Le Monde 'The most important novel of the year.' Livres Hebdo ' 'It is hard to find a comparable book in French literature.' Lire
The British press:'A book of exceptional literary quality. it has the kind of intimacy found in the diary of Anne Frank.' TLS 'Remarkable as the story of the publication of SUITE FRANCAISE is, it will finally be of anecdotal interest compared with the importance of the book. Here is the work of a fine novelist at the top of her form, writing about the fate of her adopted country with a pitiless clarity.' Patrick Marnham Evening Standard 'An heroic attempt to write a novel about a nightmare in which the author is entirely embedded.' Anita Brookner, Spectator
