Suite Francaise

She planned her work in five volumes, Némirovsky only completed two, but the circumstances of the interrupted work — the author's arrest, deportation, and death from typhus in Auschwitz in July 1942, helps the reader to have a more understanding of how the novel plays out.

An only child, Irène Némirovsky was born into a world of precarious privilege.

Her father, Léon, along with her future father-in-law, Efime Epstein, belonged to an elite of Russian Jews, centered in Kiev. Wealth and imperial favor had enabled them to escape the nightmare of pogroms, only to find that their protected status made them enemies of the Revolution.

In 1917, when Irène was 14, she and her family fled for their lives — first, to the remote countryside of Finland, then to Sweden. In 1919, they arrived in Paris quite poor. Léon returned to banking and, helped by the boom years of the 1920s, he rose straight to the top once again.
http://www.nysun.com/arts/laffaire-nmirovsky/57373/

She started writing when she was 18 years old.

In 1926, Irène Némirovsky married Michel Epstein, a banker, and had two daughters: Denise, born in 1929; and Élisabeth, in 1937.

Irène Némirovsky was jewish, but converted to Catholicism in 1939 and wrote in Candide and Gringoire, two anti-Semitic magazines—probably to hide the family's Jewish origins and protect their children from growing anti-Semitic persecution.

Upon the Nazis' approach to Paris, they fled with their two daughters to the village of Issy-l'Evêque.
where Némirovsky was required to wear the yellow star.

On July 13, 1942, Irène Némirovsky (then 39) was arrested as a "stateless person of Jewish descent" by French police under the regulations of the German occupation. As she was being taken away, she told her daughters, "I am going on a journey now." She was brought to a convoy assembly camp and on July 17 together with 928 other Jewish deportees transported to Auschwitz.

Upon her arrival there two days later, her forearm was marked with an identification number. According to official papers at the time, she died a month later of typhus. Other records revealed that Irène was actually gassed there by the Nazis.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ir%C3%A8ne_N%C3%A9mirovsky

Fiction Book prt. 10

I just finished A Northern Light and absolutely loved it!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's interested in a fictional mystery with a little bit of history involved as well. At the end of the novel, Mattie realizes that she can't be stuck in a small town for the rest of her life when she has the opportunity to full fill her dream of becoming a writer. She ends up going to New York to pursue this dream. As for Grace Brown, Mattie reads the rest of the letters that Grace asked her to burn. Mattie never ends up burning the letters for the sake of figuring out the mystery of her death. Grace Brown was killed by her boyfriend Chester Gillette. She went to the Glenmore hotel with Chester in order to get married to him because she was pregnant with his child. But, because Grace was just a poor factory worker, Chester did not want to marry her because of her "status." Because she was pregnant though, Chester thought the only way to get rid of Grace was to murder her. He took her out to the lake in a boat and pushed her in. He knew Grace couldn't swim because of one of the letters he received from her informing him of this in fact crucial information. 

 As for her fiance Royal, she found out that he only wanted to marry her for her fathers land. She gave the ring back on her way to New York. In the end, Mattie was in fact really saved by Grace Brown in a way because she figured out that she didn't want to be stuck in a life she didn't want like Grace was. All in all, great book that really gives a message of hope and believing in yourself to create a better future. I will remember Grace Brown's story as one that made not only history, but also the plot to a great story. 

Fiction Book Prt. 9

At this point in the story, Mattie finds out from a family friend that her family is gravely ill. She rushes home from her job at the Glenmore hotel to discover her house a complete disaster, the barn a total mess with the animals everywhere, and her sisters lying on the floor with no strength at all. She helps her sisters get to their beds and discovers her father in bed shivering. She tries everything she can to help her family members feel better like bathing them in cold water to bring down their fevers. With the help of some family friends, she cures her family with medications and saves the barn by taking care of all of the animals. She then realizes how her family got the mysterious illness. It was because her father helped a sick woman home one day and caught the virus then. Lather on, Royal, who is Mattie's fiance, finally gets enough money to give her an engagement ring. Even though it's just a gold band she loves it as much as she loves him. Royal goes onto tell Mattie that he finally has enough money to start a life with her and that with the help of her savings, they'll be able to find a home for themselves. Even though Mattie is so excited to finally have the ring, I can't help but wondering if this marriage to Royal is going to cause Mattie to not follow her dream of going to college and becoming a writer. I hope somehow she'll still get to go to New York and full fill this dream with or without a husband. 

Fiction Book prt. 8

Another interesting question I have come across in the back of the book is...

"Why would Grace want the letters to be destroyed?

Shouldn't Mattie tell someone about the letters as soon as Grace's body is fished from the lake?

Why doesn't she?"

I think Grace would want the letters to be destroyed because they show a past that she want's to be erased from her memory. The person she's in love with maybe hurt her in some way, this might cause Grace to feel angry and hurt and want the letters to be destroyed.

I thought at first Mattie should have told someone about Grace's letters after her body was discovered. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But now that I keep reading and putting two and two together, maybe Mattie's doing the right thing by not showing the letters to anyone because Mattie seems to be a logical girl who could solve the mystery as to what happened with Grace and why she was killed.