The Fires of Autumn

Praise for Suite Francaise:

An irresistible work. Suite Francaise clutches the heart - The Times

It is quite outstanding, full of beauty, pain and truth... We are lucky to have this book - Sunday Telegraph

The facts surrounding the discovery of this book are as remarkable as its contents are magnificent... A triumph of indomitability and a masterwork of literary accomplishment - Sunday Times

Deftly translated by Sandra Smith, this is possibly the most devastating indictment of French manners and morals since Madame Bovary, as hypnotic as Proust at the biscuit tin, as gruelling as Genet on the prowl. Irène Nemirovsky is, on this evidence, a novelist of the very first order, perceptive to a fault and sly in her emotional restraint - Evening Standard

An heroic attempt to write a novel about a nightmare in which the author is entirely embedded - Spectator

Remarkable as the story of the publication of Suite Française is, it will finally be of anecdotal interest compared with the importance of the book. Here is the work of a fine novelist at the top of her form, writing about the fate of her adopted country with a pitiless clarity

A book of exceptional literary quality, it has the kind of intimacy found in the diary of Anne Frank - Times Literary Supplement

Suite Francaise is one of those rare books that demands to be read - Guardian

Nemirovsky has a great gift for describing the ordinariness that surrounds catastrophes...it is this ability to conjure up people, in all their moods and foibles, their selflessness or vanity, that makes Suite Francaise so remarkable - Literary Review

What is to me most remarkable is the degree to which Nemirovsky, writing so close to the event, has nevertheless distilled it to extract the significance of each moment and episode...it is literature, not journalism. Her novel is in the classic French tradition, intelligent and sensuous - Scotsman

Suite Francaise is the most powerful account of that time and place many of us have ever read...this extraordinary woman's work is receiving the celebration it deserves. I defy anyone to read it without tears of admiration and pity for its author - Daily Mail

The work of a genuine artist - Writers’ and Critics’ pick of 2006, Guardian

Portraying life in France during the German occupation, it captures people's anxieties, joys and determination to maintain some normality in trying circumstances - Independent on Sunday

The description of the Germans' Second World War invasion of France is beautifully drawn. I could smell the lavender and not only see but also feel the writer's pain and joy. I never wanted it to end - Daily Express

[I]t is certain to be the toast of publishers...evokes the heroism, brutality and cowardice of a country under occupation...critics are united in acclaiming it as one of the most important novels about the occupation - Sunday Times

A powerful work, satirical yet humane, with a poignant awareness of transient happiness - Sunday Telegraph

This miracle of a novel plucks tenderness from the heart of tragedy - Independent

It has the pathos and majesty of a magnificent ruin - Guardian

Lithely moving from panoramic to microscopic, Nemirovsky shows the crumbling world from an array of perspectives...marvellous book - Daily Telegraph

Final Némirovsky: this is the last of Chatto's Némirovskys so there's scope for doing a big promotion/making a big fuss around its publication.

Film of Suite Française: set to be huge, coming early 2015 pre-Oscars with an amazing cast - Michelle Williams, Kristen Scott Thomas, Harriet Walter, Sam Riley, Mattias Schoenaerts, same director as The Duchess.

Prequel to Suite Française: tonally and subject-matter-wise this is the prequel to SF. It's set in the interwar years in the run-up to the Second World War and the evacuation of Paris, when SF begins and was the last book she finished, before she started writing SF.

Impact of war: The Fires of Autumn is seething with ferocious anger at the horrific impact of war. Publishing in 2014, in the year of the anniversary of the First World War, there will be lots of debate about this.

Literary establishment fans: Julian Barnes, Ali Smith, Carmen Callil and many others are all huge Némirovsky fans and we will be corralling their support for this final publication.