Irène Némirovsky

Born in Kyiv in 1903 to a Ukrainian Jewish family, Irène Némirovsky moved to France with her parents after the 1917 Russian Revolution. She achieved great success with her very first novel, "David Golder" (1929), followed by "The Ball" (1930). "The Master of Souls" was published in 1939 in serial form in the literary magazine "Gringoire." When the Germans entered Paris in 1940, she and her family sought refuge in a village in Morvan. There, she was arrested by the French police in the summer of 1942 and subsequently deported to Auschwitz, where she met a tragic end, as did her husband. A devoted family friend managed to save her two daughters by hiding them in different locations until the end of the war. During these constant relocations, her elder daughter, Denise, then thirteen, always carried a suitcase containing her mother's final manuscript: "Suite Française." The ordeal of her parents, as well as her own and her sister's, was so painful that many years had to pass before Denise could bring herself to read those notebooks. It was not until 2004 that she published the swan song of a great author. The book was awarded the Renaudot Prize, marking the first time it was given posthumously.