This novel first appeared in France in 1947 five years after NĂ©mirovsky's murder in Auschwitz. It spans the years between the outbreak of WW I and that of WW II, telling the story of two bourgeois families whose lives intertwine, their loves, griefs and joys. A small canvas maybe, but using delicate and telling brush strokes, a picture emerges of what it was like for ordinary French people living between the shadows of those wars.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 54 November 2009 ) |
