remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control during World War II--a heartrending "portrait of a small French town under seige, and the people trying to survive, even to live, as Hitler's horrors march closer and closer to their doors" (New York).

"Stunning.... A tour de force." --The New York Times Book Review

Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, as Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy--in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.