Irène Némirovsky

Irène Némirovsky
Némirovsky c.1928
BornIrina Lvovna Nemirovskaya
(1903-02-11)11 February 1903
Kiev, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire
Died17 August 1942(1942-08-17) (aged 39)
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Upper Silesia, German-occupied Poland
Resting placeOświęcim, Poland
OccupationNovelist
Literary movementModernism
Notable worksSuite française
SpouseMichel Epstein
Children2

Irène Némirovsky (French: [iʁɛn nemiʁɔfski]; born Irina Lvovna Nemirovskaya; 11 February 1903 – 17 August 1942) was a novelist of Ukrainian Jewish origin who was born in Kiev, then in the Russian Empire. She lived more than half her life in France and wrote in French, but was denied French nationality. Arrested as a Jew under the racial laws  which did not take into account her conversion to Roman Catholicism  she died in Auschwitz at the age of 39. Némirovsky is best known for the posthumously published Suite française.