We didn't know very much about Irène Némirovsky
before her posthumous novel Suite Francaise
was published recently. An émigré to Paris, Némirovsky achieved fame at 26 with her first novel David Gelder
, but the book was reviled by many, who found its clichéd depiction of the Jewish protagonist anti-Semitic. The author later turned on her debut novel, but many found her disavowal — in the wake of her conversion to Catholicism — unconvincing. Némirovsky died in Auschwitz at the age of 39, leaving behind a controversial legacy and this haunting, newly-discovered portrait of occupied France. [Obit
]
Complexée
