The Wine of Solitude

A wonderfully atmospheric novel...captivating and searingly honest... A brilliant coming of age novel -- Helen Dunmore * Guardian, Books of the Year * Haunting...profound...exquisitely wrought * Independent on Sunday * The tangle of this unhappy family is beautifully and ruthlessly analysed... The relationship between mother and daughter is described with uncompromising lucidity... Némirovsky evokes the places of her childhood with a sensuous clarity * Guardian * The Wine of Solitude is an end-of-innocence story... It is Némirovsky's powers of social observation...the implacable eye for the nuances of human conduct, that make The Wine of Solitude so memorable * Financial Times * Beautifully written... Her ability to evoke the feeling of time and especially place is remarkable * Scotsman * One of the best of her early novels... it is written with luminous intensity -- Jane Shilling * Evening Standard, Books of the Year * This is Nemrovsky's most autobiographical novel...recalled in hauntingly atmospheric detail -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times, Books of the Year * It's an unerring portrait of a neglected, baleful and punitive daughter -- Julian Barnes * Guardian, Books of the Year * Nemirovksy captures the rootless existence of emigres beautifully -- Shirley Whiteside * Herald * Sandra Smith's translation is mellifluous and certain passages - the opening lines describing dusk in Kiev, for example - are breathtaking -- Angel Gurria-Quintana * Financial Times *