More New Old Books

I very much liked Irène Némirovsky's Suite Francaise. Her characters and scenes were written with details that made them true-to-life, hilarious, or heartbreaking; but it was her ability to transport me to France during the German occupation that made the book so intense and intriguing. Like Sarah Water's Night Watch, it is the small drama that happens within families and couples during times of war and crisis that brings the events of history into focus for me. Ironically, Suite Francais was not historical fiction when Irène wrote it, but it is now. However, the story of the author's life is the most fascinating part of the book. I suppose the magic of old books is that the author is long dead but is still able to whisper in your ear. The fact that this author was killed in Auschwitz during the peak of her literary career makes her writing all the more somber and sorrowful. There is now a number of her writings in publication, including a collection of her earliest essays called David Golder, The Ball, Snow In Authun, The Courilof Affair which was reviewed in the New York Times.