Master of Souls

Author  Irène Némirovsky Translated by  Sandra Smith
Master of Souls

From the celebrated author of the international bestseller Suite Française, a novel about ambition and greed set against the fabulously wealthy French aristocracy of the 1920s. 

A starving young immigrant doctor of Italian and Greek descent, Dario Asfar struggles to establish his practice, and is desperate to provide for his wife and newborn son. When the vulgar, self-indulgent French aristocrat Philippe Wardes dismisses his personal physician’s advice to abstain from alcohol and gambling, he turns to Dr. Asfar for a second opinion. Understanding the opportunity before him, Dario obliges Wardes, and others like him, knowing well that the rich want to eat of the forbidden fruit without paying for the sin. At first Dario’s plan is just for survival, but soon…