#1 National and International Bestseller
Winner of France’s Prix Renaudot 2004
A New York Times Notable Book
A Globe and Mail Best Book
A Heather's Pick
Now a major motion picture starring Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ruth Wilson, Sam Riley and Lambert Wilson

"Stunning. . . . A tour de force. . . . She wrote what may be the first work of fiction about what we now call World War II. She also wrote, for all to read at last, some of the greatest, most humane and incisive fiction that conflict has produced."
—The New York Times

"Suite Française is miraculous for the power, brilliance and beauty of the writing, and for the very wholeness of the work, despite its being less than half the 1,000 pages its author intended. . . . Némirovsky’s novel speaks as resonantly today as it would have had it been published in the year of her death: It is a stunning denunciation of the hypocrisy and greed of the ruling elites who make, but never seem to suffer from, war.”
—The Globe and Mail

"A masterpiece on the page, Suite Française will also endure as a remarkable testament to human perseverance and courage."
—National Post

"What is amazing about the book is that Némirovsky wrote this story at the same time as she lived it. . . . Suite Française stands as a masterwork, an incisive study of human nature.”
—Toronto Star

"Sincere, superb. . . . From the start, we recognize we are in the hands of a writer with masterly powers of observation and description. . . . Némirovsky’s legacy is this stunning book, which deserves to be read by all."
—The Gazette

"Némirovsky’s scope is like that of Tolstoy: She sees the fullness of humanity and its tenuous arrangements and manages to put them together with a tone that is affectionate, patient and relentlessly honest. . . . A lost masterpiece."
—O, The Oprah Magazine

“Stunning. . . . Remarkable. . . . The author of Suite Française is one of the most fascinating literary figures you’ve never heard of—and her own tragic story only deepens the impact of her book.”
—Newsweek

“Extraordinary. . . . A work of Proustian scope and delicacy, by turns funny and deeply moving.” —TIME

“Astonishing. . . . Suite Française is a surprising, transfixing book.”
—Financial Times

"Extraordinary, visceral, photo-sharp. . . . Sometimes a book can throw wide open a door that has stood barely ajar for decades. . . . [It] bears eloquent, complex testimony to a time and place that, for those who didn’t live through it, defies easy understanding. . . . Uncannily perceptive, astonishing.”
—The Seattle Times

“Transcendent, astonishing. . . . Suite Française, which might be the last great fiction of the war, provides us with an intimate recounting of occupation, exodus, and loss. [Its] staggering power is that it affirms the idea that art can offer a path to salvation.”
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“An extraordinary work, an astonishing blend of fiction and fact, history and storytelling.”
—Houston Chronicle

“[Suite Française is] clearly the work of a novelist with an alert eye for self-deceit, a tender regard for the natural world, and a forlorn gift for describing the crumbling, sliding descent of an entire society into catastrophic disorder.”
—London Review of Books

“This is possibly the most devastating indictment of French manners and morals since Madame Bovary, as hypnotic as Proust at the biscuit tin, as grueling as Genet on the prowl. Irène Némirovsky is, on this evidence, a novelist of the very first order, perceptive to a fault and sly in her emotional restraint.”
—Evening Standard

"The history of the manuscript, and its survival, is remarkable enough. The authority of the novel, though, does not come from its history, but from its quality. . . . The narrative is eloquent and glowing with life. Its tone reflects a deep understanding of human behaviour under pressure and a hard-won, often ironic composure in the face of violation. . . . Even in its incomplete form Suite Française is one of those rare books that demands to be read."
—The Guardian

“A magnificent work that its readers will cherish for as long as they still care about the art of fiction or the history of Europe.”
—The Independent

“Against the odds, Suite Française has survived. It does so as a triumph of indomitability and a masterwork of literary accomplishment.”
—The Sunday Times

“A uniquely resonant picture of France defeated and occupied, a book of exceptional literary quality—it has the kind of intimacy found the diary of Anne Frank.”
—Times Literary Supplement

“An heroic attempt to write a nightmare in which the author is actually embedded.”
—The Spectator

“Remarkable as the story of the publication of Suite Française 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.”
—Evening Standard

“An exceptionally forceful and frank testimony. . . . Like The Diary of Anne Frank, Suite Française is a real find; it excels both from a literary and historical perspective. A masterpiece.”
—L’Express

“Némirovsky sees right to the core of things. . . . Her biting sentences give no respite to her characters. . . . There are scenes that are fearlessly described in the most vividly real terms.”
—Journal du Dimanche

“Suite Française is not about the Nazi anti-Semitic abomination, but about whatever is low in human nature in general. . . Némirovsky’s maturity as a writer, her harsh vision of humanity, her utter lack of sentimentalism or politically correct humanism combine in a book that is vigorously disturbing.”
—Le Monde

“Superb. . . . Its bee-hive structure, its finely tuned sense of what is laughable, its eye-burning imagery, are hugely arresting. Readers are whisked on a flight through social classes, genders and generations.”
—Le Point

“Such a book is hard to find in French literature. . . . An absolutely necessary rediscovery.”
—Lire