Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

In 1941,Irene Nemirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through,not in terms of battles and politicians, but by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. She did not live to see her ambition fulfilled,or to know that,sixty-five years,Suite Francaise would be published for the first time,and hailed as a marsterpiece.

Set during a year that begins with France's fall to the Nazis in june 1940 and ends with Germany turning its attention to Russia, Suit Fancaise falls into two parts.The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion and make their way through the chaos of France;the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation who find themselves thrown together in ways they never expected. Nemirovsky's brilliance as a writer lay in her portrayal of people,and this ia a novel that teems with wonderful characters,each more vivid than the next.Haughty aristocrats, bourgeois bankers and snobbish aethetes rub shoulders with uncouth workers and bolshy farmers. Women variously resist or succumb to the charms of German soldiers. However,amidst the mess of defeat,and all the hypocrisy and compromise,there is hope. True nobility and love exist,but often in suprising places.
A story of war seen through the eyes of ordinary citizens rather than the soldiers fighting.

What really made the book so poignant was the Appendix and preface, putting the book in context.

Very moving story.