This summer I decided to face on my crippled attention span and picked up The Fires of Autumn by Irene Nemirovsky from my parent's bookshelf. It was a short and nice read, but I did not find it particularly appealing. What did really intrigue me was the environment in which it takes place, that of a scarred society without cohesion or aim, which just reacts to the events happening around and within, a generation that has either lost its values or clinges to old ones. There were little scenes and pieces dialogue here and there which reflected this scenery in more nuanced ways than the rest of the novel and those were the bits I enjoyed the most. So I came here to ask if any of you have read and enjoyed books in which declining societies are the central theme or environment, no matter the author's era or birthplace.
by balamaia