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The Wine of Solitude

By Irene Nemirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith

By Irene Nemirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith

By Irene Nemirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith

By Irene Nemirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith

Best Seller

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Paperback $15.00

Sep 18, 2012 | ISBN 9780307745484

Ebook $10.99

Dec 17, 2014 | ISBN 9781101911440

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    The Wine of Solitude by Irene Nemirovsky
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    Sep 18, 2012 | ISBN 9780307745484

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      Sep 18, 2012 | ISBN 9780307745484

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    About The Wine of Solitude

    Introspective and poignant, The Wine of Solitude is the most autobiographical of all of the novels from the celebrated author of Suite Française.
     
    Beginning in a fictionalized Kiev, The Wine of Solitude follows the Karol family through the Great War and the Russian Revolution, as the young Hélène grows from a dreamy, unhappy child into a strongwilled young woman. From the hot Kiev summers to the cruel winters of St Petersburg and eventually to springtime in Paris, the would-be writer Hélène blossoms, despite her mother’s neglect, into a clear-eyed observer of the life around her. Here is a powerful tale of disillusionment — the story of an upbringing that produces a young woman as hard as a diamond, prepared to wreak a shattering revenge on her mother.

    A Vintage Paperback Original

    About The Wine of Solitude

    Introspective and poignant, The Wine of Solitude is the most autobiographical of all of the novels from the celebrated author of Suite Française.
     
    Beginning in a fictionalized Kiev, The Wine of Solitude follows the Karol family through the Great War and the Russian Revolution, as the young Hélène grows from a dreamy, unhappy child into a strongwilled young woman. From the hot Kiev summers to the cruel winters of St Petersburg and eventually to springtime in Paris, the would-be writer Hélène blossoms, despite her mother’s neglect, into a clear-eyed observer of the life around her. Here is a powerful tale of disillusionment — the story of an upbringing that produces a young woman as hard as a diamond, prepared to wreak a shattering revenge on her mother.

    A Vintage Paperback Original

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Also in Vintage International

    The Plague
    Palimpsest

    Also in Vintage International

    The Plague
    Palimpsest

    Also by Irene Nemirovsky

    The Fires of Autumn
    Jezebel
    All Our Worldly Goods
    Dimanche and Other Stories
    Fire in the Blood
    See all books by Irene Nemirovsky

    Also by Irene Nemirovsky

    The Fires of Autumn
    Jezebel
    All Our Worldly Goods
    Dimanche and Other Stories
    Fire in the Blood
    See all books by Irene Nemirovsky

    About Irene Nemirovsky

    Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 into a successful banking family. Trapped in Moscow by the Russian Revolution, she and her family fled first to a village in Finland, and eventually to France, where she attended the Sorbonne…. More about Irene Nemirovsky

    About Irene Nemirovsky

    Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 into a successful banking family. Trapped in Moscow by the Russian Revolution, she and her family fled first to a village in Finland, and eventually to France, where she attended the Sorbonne…. More about Irene Nemirovsky

    Product Details

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Paperback | $15.00
    Published by Vintage
    Sep 18, 2012 | 256 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780307745484

    Category: Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $10.99
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 17, 2014 | 256 Pages | ISBN 9781101911440

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    Praise

    Praise for The Wine of Solitude:

    “A precocity and acuity of perception shine through.”
    —The New Yorker

    “Wonderfully atmospheric . . . . Némirovsky evokes the places of her childhood with a sensuous clarity that shows how much she learned from Tolstoy and Proust. . . . A captivating and searingly honest portrait of the artist as a young woman.”
    —The Guardian (London)

     “Strangely haunting . . . . Profound, exquisitely wrought. . . . A pitch-perfect evocation of adult duplicity.”  
    —The Independent (London)

    “Fiercely brave. . . . [Here is] the birth of a writer, shaped by war and revolution, told with the devastating cynicism of a young woman in a corrupt and greedy social world, where mothers openly flaunt their lovers and children are humored and ignored. . . . The characters are multidimensional.”
    —Shelf Awareness

    “Breathtaking. . . . Némirovsky’s powers of social observation, [her] implacable eye for the nuances of human conduct . . .  make The Wine of Solitude so memorable.”
    —The Financial Times


    Praise for Irène Némirovsky:

    “Extraordinary. . . . Némirovsky achieve[s] her penetrating insights with Flaubertian objectivity.”
    —The Washington Post Book World
     
    “Stunning. . . . [Némirovsky] wrote, for all to read at last, some of the greatest, most humane and inclusive fiction that conflict has produced.”
    —The New York Times Book Review
     
    “Némirovsky’s scope is like that of Tolstoy: She sees the fullness of humanity and its tenuous arrangements and manages to put them together with a tone that is affectionate, patient, and relentlessly honest.”
    —O: The Oprah Magazine

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