One of the two books already on my shelf and yes it had been there for awhile. Given its subject matter and the author I knew it was going to be sad and hard to read. The novel is set on the eve of the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940 and it tells the stories of men and women thrown together as they flee Paris ahead of the Nazi forces. The impact of the Occupation is told in interweaving storylines. It is a compelling, harrowing, sad read.
The real life story of Irene Nemirovsky is even more compelling and heartbreaking than her novel. At the start of World War II she was a successful married writer and a mother, but she was a Jew. She was arrested in 1942, deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For the next 64 years this novel remained hidden and unknown. It still brings tears to my eyes--sometimes all you can do is bear witness.
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