This graphic novel, translated from the French, is based on Book 1 of Suite Française, the extraordinary publishing phenomenon by the late Irène Némirovsky. In July 1942, having just completed the first two books in a planned series, the Jewish Némirovsky was arrested in France and was eventually sent to Auschwitz, where she died. The notebook containing the two novels was preserved by her daughters but not examined until 1998. They were published in a single volume in 2004; critically acclaimed, it became a huge bestseller in France. An English translation, published by Knopf in 2006, has sold over 1 million copies; the New York Times said that it ranks with "the greatest, most humane and incisive fiction that conflict has produced."
Suite Française portrays village life in France in the period following June 1940, when the invading German army defeated the French; this graphic novel depicts the first book, entitled Storm in June. The book follows several characters in Paris, all of whom are forced to flee to city in ahead of the advancing German troops.
A film version, starring Michelle Williams and Kristen Scott Thomas, is scheduled to be released in 2015.
Moynot's book contains much of Némirovsky's dialogue.