Irene Nemirovsky

Set in what was then contemporary Russia at the turn of the century, in a large port town on the Black Sea, The Prodigal Child is a story of a boy with a gift for composing poetry and songs--his inspiration drawn from within--who attracts the attention of a Princess. This wealthy and sophisticated woman rescues Baruch from his hard life, though it is one he also adores as a Jewish boy coming of age in his Orthodox Jewish community. But his freedom turns into a prison for him as he hopelessly falls in love with the Princess, who has no interest in the boy other than for the entertainment he provides her with his art. Falling deeper and yet with no rescue this time, he becomes ill and in his throes loses his gift, the very reason he had met the Princess in the first place. Of no use to her any longer, he is returned to his family to suffer tragic consequences.

Da Irène Némirovsky, en av 1930-årenes mest kjente franske forfattere, grep pennen i 1941, var det for å skrive en roman som skulle bli mer enn en krigsskildring. Hun så krigen som et middel for å nå frem til det innerste i mennesket - og planla sitt litterære storverk: en suite med fire deler. Némirovsky rakk å fullføre de to første, og gjemte manuskriptet i en koffert før hun ble deportert til Auschwitz, der hun døde i 1942. Like etter led hennes mann samme skjebne. De to døtrene fikk berget kofferten, men det gikk mange år før de orket å lese. Først i 2004 ble boken utgitt i Frankrike og i 2006 kom den ut på norsk. Enten de er positive eller negative, forandrer ikke de alvorlige hendelsene menneskets sjel, men de gjør dem tydeligere, akkurat som når et vindkast med ett feier bort de visne bladene og åpenbarer formen på et tre. Alvorlige hendelser kaster lys over det man har latt være i skyggen, og de dirigerer ånden i den retningen den heretter skal vokse i. Romanens to deler - Storm i juni og Dolce - følger flere familiers og enkeltpersoners strabaser og skjebner, og bindes sammen med toneart og stemning; temaer og karakterer som går igjen. Her skildres arroganse, dobbeltmoral, likefremhet, kurtise og kjærlighet ... Boken åpner med flukten fra Paris i juni 1940, preget av redsel, uvisshet, bombing og mangel på bensin og mat. I Dolce skildres livet i en okkupert landsby, der hverdagen med tyskerne har tatt over.

PORVARILLINEN KOMEDIA sisältää niminovellinsa lisäksi tekijänsä kirpeintä ja kirkkainta lyhytproosaa. Henkilöt ajautuvat vaikeuksiin sovinnaistapojen paineissa ja pyyteidensä orjina. Sukupuolten ja -polvien välillä ei vallitse rauha. Kerronta on ainutkertainen yhdistelmä perinnetietoista sanataidetta ja pyrkimystä uudistaa ihmissuhde- ja tilannekuvaus entistäkin viileämmäksi, julkista tilaa korostavaksi esitykseksi.

The prequel to the bestselling Suite FrançaiseParis 1918, Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. But as another war threatens, everything around him starts to crumble, and the future for him and for France suddenly looks dangerously uncertain.

This panoramic exploration of French life between the wars reads like a prequel to Ir ne N mirovsky's international bestseller Suite Fran aise. At the end of the First World War, Bernard Jacquelain returns from the trenches a changed man. Broken by the unspeakable horrors he has witnessed, he becomes addicted to the lure of wealth and success. He wallows in the corruption and excess of post-war Paris, but when his lover abandons him, Bernard turns to a childhood friend for comfort. For ten years, he lives the good bourgeois life, but when the drums of war begin to sound again, everything around which he has rebuilt himself starts to crumble, and the future--of his marriage and of his country--suddenly becomes terribly uncertain. Written after N mirovsky fled Paris in 1940, just two years before her death, and first published in France in 1957, The Fires of Autumn is a coruscating, tragic novel of war and its aftermath, and of the ugly color it can turn a man's soul.

Irene Nemirovsky, Nata in Ucraina, di religione ebraica convertitasi poi al cattolicesimo nel 1939, ha vissuto e lavorato in Francia. Arrestata dai nazisti, in quanto ebrea, fu deportata nel luglio del 1942 ad Auschwitz, dove mor un mese pi tardi di tifo.Nel 1933, quando Hitler sale al potere, nel mese di gennaio, Ir ne dice alla sua infermiera: "Mia povera cara, entro poco saremo tutti morti". Nello stesso anno pubblica "L'affare Kurilov", ambientato nella Russia dei primi anni del novecento in cui il regime zarista cominciava a crollare sotto le istanze delle nuove generazioni. Il racconto in gran parte narrato in prima persona da un terrorista che sta preparando un attentato al ministro della Pubblica Istruzione. Le storie dei due protagonisti, attentatore e vittima, riflettono una visione della vita che come il golfo del nord di Pietroburgo: "nonostante il cielo azzurro al di sopra, conserva il suo colore grigio".La modernit della scrittura e della storia, mai banale, non mancher di arricchire il lettore di spunti di riflessione personali e generali.

"Le Malentendu" fu pubblicato nel 1926. Romanzo breve, la storia di una relazione sentimentale che nasce in un luogo di villeggiatura e continua poi a Parigi. Che l'"eccesso di amore" possa soffocare, una verit che Denise, la protagonista, scopre dalla sua esperienza, ma anche aiutata dal buon senso pratico e borghese della madre. Ma la soluzione che Denise trova a questo "eccesso" potrebbe portarla in una direzione diversa dalla felicit ...

"L'enfant genial", una delle prime opere di Irene Nemirovsky, pubblicato nel 1927, una novella che ha lo spessore di un romanzo corto. Se c' una morale, in questa storia di Ismaele, ragazzo del ghetto dotato di genio, quella della grazia violata e snaturata, e che l'arte, il genio, possono nascere solo nella spontaneit .

1929 L'action se situe en 1926, une p riode de sp culation intense qui se terminera dans le krach boursier de 1929. Le roman commence par une discussion entre deux associ s, David Golder, 68 ans, et Marcus, dans laquelle on per oit l' pret des enjeux capitalistes. David, riche, et juif (comme l'auteur), nous est d crit comme un tre rapace et implacable. Il met fin son association avec Marcus et, au matin, il apprend son suicide. Apr s l'enterrement, il rejoint sa femme et sa fille Biarritz, toutes deux cervel es, oisives et d pensi res, ne pensant qu' tirer de l'argent de Golder. Harass de fatigue, ce dernier est victime d'une deuxi me crise d'angine de poitrine... L'auteur, dans ce roman et dans d'autres, n'est pas tendre dans son portait du juif affairistes, et il est parfois difficile de se rappeler que l'auteur est morte Auschwitz. Cet antis mitisme latent, caract ristique d'une poque mais plus tonnant au cas pr sent, a fait l'objet de de divers tudes, pol miques et commentaires.

From the author of the bestselling Suite Française. A compelling story of infatuation, passion and self-destructive loveYves Harteloup is a disappointed young man, scarred by the war.

Ir ne N mirovskyLe Pion sur l' chiquierSet in France during the economic crisis of the nineteen-thirties, Le Pion sur l' chiquier is an unflinching portrait of a man for whom life has lost all meaning. Son of a dying steel magnate whose investments crashed, Christophe Bohun works in an International News Agency and lives together with his dying father, wife, mistress and son, in dilapidated grandeur. At a time of external hardship, he appears to have everything and value nothing. Where his father was driven by a ruthless passion for high finance and his teenage son is eaten up with suppressed anger, N mirovsky presents us with an anti-hero whose bleak interior life is an object lesson in alienation and emotional numbness.

From the author of the bestselling Suite Fran�§aise. H�©l�¨ne is a troubled young girl. As first the Great War and then the Russian Revolution rage in the background, she grows from a lonely, melancholy child to an angry young woman intent on destruction.

Introspective and poignant, The Wine of Solitude is the most autobiographical of all of the novels from the celebrated author of Suite Fran aise. Beginning in a fictionalized Kiev, The Wine of Solitude follows the Karol family through the Great War and the Russian Revolution, as the young H l ne grows from a dreamy, unhappy child into a strongwilled young woman. From the hot Kiev summers to the cruel winters of St Petersburg and eventually to springtime in Paris, the would-be writer H l ne blossoms, despite her mother's neglect, into a clear-eyed observer of the life around her. Here is a powerful tale of disillusionment -- the story of an upbringing that produces a young woman as hard as a diamond, prepared to wreak a shattering revenge on her mother. A Vintage Paperback Original

A stunning novel about mothers and daughters, about vengeance, and an aging, still beautiful woman on trial for shooting her lover. In a French courtroom, the trial of a woman is taking place. Gladys Eysenach is no longer young, but she remains striking, elegant, cold. She is accused of shooting dead her much-younger lover. As the witnesses take the stand and the case unfolds, Gladys relives fragments of her past: her childhood, her absent father, her marriage, her turbulent relationship with her daughter, her decline, and then the final irrevocable act. With the depth of insight and pitiless compassion we have come to expect from the acclaimed author of Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky shows us the soul of a desperate woman obsessed with her lost youth.