Irene Nemirovsky - The Dogs and the Wolves

Irène Némirovsky, the daughter of a Jewish banker, was born in Kiev in 1903. Her house fled the Russian Empire following the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and finally they located in Paris where her father rebuilt his fortune. Némirovsky became a flourishing author during the Vichy regime, but tragically died in 1942, aged just 39, after being deported to a Nazi death camp. In recent years, her work has undergone a revival with several works being published posthumously, along with the unfinished Suite Française, which, when published in 2006, became an international bestseller.

Set in France and the Ukraine, The Dogs and the Wolves is a novel that depicts both the social strata of Jewish society in Kiev and the prevailing anti-semitism in wartime Paris. It is also the story of a love triangle, the origins of which lie in events occurring in the heroine, Ada's, childhood. As the love story develops it brings an intensity to the book that is reminiscent of both Scott Fitzgerald's The beautiful and the Damned and Zola's Thérèse Raquin. This comparison with Zola's early novel is particularly apt given Némirovsky's emphasis on the Jewish spirit, which is portrayed as an roughly supernatural essence. The idea that the Jewish race is in some way both chosen and afflicted flows throughout the novel. And this idea, a confident lack in objectivity, is really what makes the story flawed. However, it is true to say that flawed novels often make a compelling read, and this work is no exception.

The Wolves

With its portrayal of the growing tension in the middle of the three central characters, Ada Sinner, her cousin Ben, both from the Jewish lower middle classes, and Harry Sinner, wealthy, blessed and assimilating himself into glamorous Parisian society, the novel becomes a compulsive page-turner. Relatively short and classical in structure, each word of the novel contributes towards its finely-tuned depictions of character, its vivid descriptions and inspiring drama.

Irene Nemirovsky - The Dogs and the Wolves

This is a compelling love story, a breathtaking study of social class, the clash of cultures and the ties of blood.

Irene Nemirovsky - The Dogs and the Wolves

Recommend : Natural Gas Grills