Suite Francaise

I came across this title when doing some research after reading Sarah's Key.  Suite Francaise is written by Russian/French author Irene Nemirovsky.  She had intended this to be a 5 book series, but was unable to finish the last three books.

The book tells the stories of several different families & individuals from June 4, 1940 until July 1, 1941 when the Nazis invaded and occupied France.  At first, I was concerned that there were too many different people to keep track of, but Nemirovsky writes in a way that makes it easy to keep everyone straight, and keep the book interesting.

As a bit of a history buff, I have read many books about the WWII era, both fictional and non-fictional.  Never have I felt anything but disgust for the German soldiers...until the second part of Suite Francaise.  I found myself wishing the Third Reich Lieutenant well, and I find it remarkable that, given the author's fate, Mlle. Nemirovsky was able to create these emotions for me.

Not only do I recommend this book, but I strongly recommend reading both appendixes at the end.

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