The dogs and the wolves /
Irčne Némirovsky
- London : Chatto & Windus, 2009
- 216 p. ; 20 cm
At its heart is a tragic love, between Ada from the poor Jewish quarter and Harry, son of a rich financier. The dogs are the comfortable, assimilated rich Jews up on the hill, while the wolves, their distant cousins, struggle below in the ghetto. Ada grows up motherless, looked after first by her father, then by an indomitable, social-climbing aunt, and eventually moves to Paris with her aunt's family, all of them looking for a brighter future. Ada makes a living in Paris as an artist, painting scenes from the world she has left behind. Her cousin Ben, intense and ferociously intelligent, has loved her for years; they share memories - together they survived the terrible pogroms of their childhood - and he presses her to marry him. But Harry Sinner is also in Paris, moving in exclusive circles, and infatuated with the daughter of a wealthy gentile banker. One day he buys two paintings which remind him of his past... and the course of Ada's life changes once more.
Translated from the French to English
9780099507789
Jews--Ukraine--Fiction Women, Ukrainian--France--Paris--Fiction Jewish women artists--France--Paris--Fiction Bankers--France--Paris--Fiction
Paris (France)--Social conditions--20th century--Fiction