Synopsis
A collection of never-before-translated stories by the bestselling author of Suite Française, this is a gorgeous, gemlike volume with the same attention to detail that won Irène Némirovsky so many fans. Written between 1934 and 1942, these ten stories mine the same terrain as her bestselling novels: a keen eye for the details of social class; the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives; the manners and mannerisms of the French bourgeoisie; and questions of religion and personal identity. Moving from the drawing rooms of prewar Paris to the lives of men and women in wartime France, here is the beautiful work of a writer at the height of her tragically short career.
Publishers Weekly
Ten luminous and newly translated stories by Némirovsky (Suite Française), who died at Auschwitz, expose the miseries that undermine happy families. Set mostly in France, where the author immigrated after the Russian revolution, these accomplished tales create worlds full of secrets and treacheries, such as in the title story, set on one typical Sunday at a bourgeois Parisian home where the middle-aged wife and mother, Agnes—once embittered by her husband's taking of a mistress, but now apathetic to his wanderings—remembers her own lost love. “Flesh and Blood” is a masterpiece of familial subterfuge revolving around an aged matriarch who falls ill and tries to keep peace among her three self-absorbed sons and their grasping wives. In “The Spell,” a young visitor to a messy Russian household gleans dark mysteries around a lovelorn aunt's romantic sorcery; several of the tales, such as “The Spectator” and “Monsieur Rose,” capture aloof, prosperous gentlemen fleeing Paris in advance of the Nazis. In this superlative translation, Némirovsky's characters emerge full-fleshed, and her voice remains timeless and relevant. (Apr.)