This is my favorite of Nemirovsky's works so far (see here and here for comparison; the first link also discusses a bit of Nemirovsky's extremely interesting back story).The translator explains that the title carries a different meaning in French - less materialistic in weight than the English words.
The story line follows generations of a family resident in northern France - a town where the German army swept through in both WWI and WWII. One son (later a soldier in WWI) breaks off the engagement to the wealthy fiancee preferred by his industrialist grandfather and instead marries for love; he is cut out of the family business (though things come full circle). His son is drawn into WWII fighting.
It's just a very nice story in many ways. And brings alive, a bit differently than other discussions, some of the reasons why the French just couldn't have been all that excited about ramping up to fight the Germans in 1940. WWI fought mostly on French soil, with horrific casualties; partial mobilizations less than 20 years later; here come the Germans again - unimaginable. French citizens who were say 25 when WWI ended were just 46 or 47 when the WWII invasion occurred - how must that have felt?
As in Suite Francaise, interesting scenes when French towns evacuated ahead of the advancing German army.
Quick read, worthwhile, the author is a good observer
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