Irene Nmirovskys war narrative, Suite franaise, was discovered and published posthumously in 2004, over sixty years after it was written. A Jewish Russian immigrant who had achieved literary stardom during the twenty years she lived in France, Nmirovsky wrote her novel during the first years of the Occupation, before she was deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz, where she died in 1942. When published, the book produced an immediate international sensation and has since been translated into more than twenty-five languages. While giving rise to a certain amount of controversy, the novel has been widely acclaimed as a literary masterpiece providing a devastating portrayal of Frances defeat and occupation.