The Wine of Solitude
Irène Némirovsky
Irène Némirovsky, a Russian Jew born in Kiev, met her death in Auschwitz in 1942. She was in love with France: she spoke fluent French, converted to Catholicism and in later life repeatedly applied for French citizenship. Ironically it was in Vichy France that she was taken away on a truck bound for Auschwitz.
She was 39 years old when she was gassed to death. She had published 14 works in her lifetime and another six have been published since. She is probably best known for her unfinished Suite Française, deemed by many critics in 2006 their book of the year.