[A] measured, compelling new book. . . . Rather than bluntly judge, Ms. Suleiman makes us see Nemirovsky as a gifted woman situated in a particular historical epoch, carefully analyzing her writings as a product of those times, and clarifying, without excusing, Nemirovsky's most discomforting passages. -Diane Cole, Wall Street Journal Suleiman had produced a work that is ... Read morea model of painstaking research, historical expertise, nuanced analysis and human intelligence. -Peter Kemp, Sunday Times The Nemirovsky Question traces the fascinating and complicated saga of the writer Irene Nemirovsky against the rich backdrop of French literary culture, emigre culture, and secular Jewish culture. Suleiman enters brilliantly into the debate over Nemirovsky's suppposed 'self-hatred,' adding nuance, complexity, context. She not only complicates the way we view Nemirovsky but also expands our understanding of the lives, choices, and cultures of secular and secularizing Jews in Europe and North America in the twentieth century. e is a keenly intelligent book-clear, moving, and at moments, passionate. It should fly off the shelves. -Sara R. Horowitz, York University The Nemirovsky Question is a rare kind of book that combines history, biography and literary commentary to illuminate a controversial figure. It comes full circle with Suleiman's very first book on the ideological novel and shares qualities that mark all of her works: a gift for clear argument, convincing reading, and wisdom-about life and literature. What a gripping and intelligent book! I learned a great deal about subjects and texts I have been studying for many years. -Alice Kaplan, Yale University In this brilliant and moving book, Susan Rubin Suleiman examines the troubling charge that Irene Nemirovksy, the acclaimed author of Suite Francaise, was a 'self-hating Jew.' Her conclusion is that Nemirovsky became a leading French novelist in the inter-war years despite mounting anti-Semitism, yet it was a Russian-born Jew that she died in Auschwitz in 1942. -Alan Riding, author of And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris Novelist Irene Nemirovsky acknowledged how she sought out 'cruelly tirelessly, the secrets beneath sad faces and dark skies' with particular attention to the grimmer side of pre-World War French Jewish life. Susan Rubin Suleiman sees this as a prolegomenon to Nemirovsky's long forgotten, now rediscovered, still-controversial fictional universe in this impassioned, keenly intelligent book. -Steven J. Zipperstein, Daniel E. Koshland Professor in Jewish Culture and History, Stanford University Show Less