From the author of the bestsellingSuite Française.

A compelling story of infatuation, passion and self-destructive love

Yves Harteloup is a disappointed young man, scarred by the war. He returns for the summer to the rich, comfortable Atlantic resort of Hendaye, where he spent blissful childhood holidays. There he becomes infatuated by a beautiful, bored young woman, Denise, whose rich husband is often away on business. Intoxicated by summer nights and Yves intensity, Denise falls passionately in love, before the idyll has to end and Yves must return to his mundane office job. In the mournful Paris autumn their love founders on mutual misunderstanding and Denise is driven mad with desire and jealous suspicion until, acting on her sophisticated mothers advice, she takes action...which she may regret forever.

Irène Némirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903, the daughter of a successful Jewish banker. In 1918 her family fled the Russian Revolution for France where she became a bestselling novelist, author ofDavid Golder,Le Bal,The Courilof Affair,All Our Worldly Goodsand other works published in her lifetime or afterwards, such asSuite FrançaiseandFire in the Blood.The Misunderstanding(Le Malentendu) was first published in France inLes OEuvres libresin 1926. Némirovsky was prevented from publishing when the Germans occupied France and moved with her husband and two small daughters from Paris to the safety of the small village of Issy-l'Evêque (in German occupied territory). She died in Auschwitz in 1942.

An intense story of self-destructive love: Irène Némirovsky's first novel, written when she was just twenty-one