n the last year or so of her life, in the small village of Issy-l’Évèque, Irène Némirovsky could be seen writing furiously in her notebook. She stopped work on this, her last project of a prodigiously productive career, when she was arrested and taken to Auschwitz, where she perished. She left the notebook behind in a suitcase kept by her daughters, Denise and Elisabeth, who survived the war. Believing the notebook was Irène’s diary, decades passed before Denise dared to open the notebook, and when she did, it was not a diary she discovered, but a major literary work: the manuscript for Suite Française, including the first two parts, “Storm in June” and “Dolce,” and notes for the third, “Captivity.” Leaf through the first pages of the manuscript on the right, and witness for yourself the tiny writing, the notes Irène wrote to herself and her crossed-out notations illustrating her writing process. Sense the urgency Irène felt as she penned what would be her last work.