The Life of Irene Nemirovsky

May 19, 2024 5:45 PM

Author:Patrick Lienhardt,Olivier Philipponnat,Euan Cameron

Irène Némirovsky's own life was as dramatic as any fiction. Few writers enjoy posthumous success as astonishing as hers after the international triumph of Suite Française. She was born in 1903 in Kiev to a well-off Jewish family. They fled the Russian revolution, eventually settling in France where, with the publication of David Golder in 1929 - delivered to a publisher just before the birth of her first daughter - Irène swiftly became an acclaimed and successful writer. When France fell to the Nazis, Irène and her family took refuge in a small Burgundy village, but in July 1942 she was arrested by the French police and deported to Auschwitz. Irène died a month later, aged only thirty-nine.

Her biographers take advantage of access to diaries, unpublished documents and surviving family members to examine Irène's remarkable life, from pogroms in Ukraine to gilded holidays in Biarritz, and her troubled relationship with her vain, difficult mother. The result is a brilliant portrait of an exceptional writer and of a turbulent period of European history.

Reviews

An illuminating new biography, which draws heavily upon diaries and notebooks that have resurfaced in the last few years

—— J.M. Coetzee , The New York Review of Books

Her biographers have performed a remarkable feat of research, collating long-lost notes and fragments

—— Max Hastings , Sunday Times

An important contribution to understanding a complex, painful but ultimately triumphant story

—— Sunday Telegraph

A memorable portrait of a strong, determined, sarcastic and humorous woman

—— Caroline Moorehead , Literary Review

In its respectfulness and its dense poetic asides, beautifully translated by Euan Cameron, this tremendous biography is also very French

—— Nicholas Shakespeare , Daily Telegraph

Lavish in style and high in ambition

—— Iain Finlayson , The Times

With this detailed and empathetic biography we have a chance to discover the woman behind it ... This biography is excellent at explaining Nemirovsky's process of literary creation and her psychological wounds

—— Christopher Silvester , Express

Painstaking biography

—— Patrick Marnham , Spectator

Phillipponnat and Lienhardt scrupulously examine the extent to which Nemirovksy mined her own life and parental relationships for her fiction

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

A re-reading of Allan Massie's masterful drama about Vichy France.

—— Nicholas Shakespeare , Daily Telegraph, Christmas round up

The author of Suite Francaise had a life as dramatic and as tragic as her fiction

—— Telegraph Review

A fascinating biography

—— Lesley McDowell , Herald

This book is excellent

—— Andrew Holgate , Sunday Times

This dramatic biography recreates her tragic life and the turbulent times in which she lived...Nemirovsky is one of those rare writers whose life is every bit as interesting as her work

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

This is a scholarly biography of a literary paragon... It is saturated with her writings, revealing her passions, hubris, moods and anxieties, as well as her thoughts of fiction, Jewishness and mothers... Russian social history, anti-Semitism and the Vichy regime's collusion with the Nazis are handled adroitly

—— Maggie Armstrong , Irish Times

An epic novel... The suspense lasts until the final pages. There is no let-up. At the end of the book, you really feel that even though Sashenka is a fictional character, she has become one of the thousands of real people who haunt the Moscow archives that Montefiore knows so well

—— SUNDAY EXPRESS

Previous Article：The War in the Air Next Article：Daisy Bates in the Desert

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.