All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky begins not long before the beginning of World War I and the setting is of course France. Saint-Elme is a rural community where the main employer is Julien Hardelot who owns a paper mill and rules his family as only tyrants do.

Julien expects his grandson to marry his wealthy cousin, keeping the money in the family and so helping the family business, but Pierre is in love with someone and when he marries her it begins a feud which splits the family.

This book begins in France prior to the outbreak of World War 1 and continues until the outbreak of World War 2 with all the usual Nemirovsky themes of fractured families, domineering mothers and refugees, which is just what she was experiencing at the time she wrote it.

I’ve been on a bit of a Nemirovsky kick recently and I think I only have a couple more of her novels to read – and some short stories. All good things must come to an end I suppose, it’s just a shame that her end came far too soon.