Sarah's Key

by Tatiana De Rosnay

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to re-evaluate her marriage and her life. "Tatiana de Rosnay" offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

• ISBN10: 1429985216
• ISBN13: 9781429985215
• Publish Date: 12 June 2007
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: St. Martin's Press
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

“You get attached to places, you know. Like people, I suppose.”

In the past few years I've really grown to love books that follow two different time periods. In Sarah's Key we follow Sarah from 1942 and Julia from 2002. With this being my second time reading the book I knew the story and was able to look for little things throughout the book that I missed the first time. I noticed so much more about both of their stories and even though I knew what was going to happen, I still hoped for a better outcome.

Sarah's story is the one that always breaks my heart. It's one of a sister trying to protect her sibling and it going so so wrong. Making her families situation that much more difficult for her parents to deal with. Sarah will always feel guilty about it, she will carry that burden forever, even hiding it from her family.

Julia's story being in present day means that most people have forgotten somewhat what happened in the past, infact until the first time I read this book I didn't even know that France had been apart of this. It also shows the lengths people will go to to try and make themselves look better in the face of tragedy when they know they've done something wrong. The connection this story has to her family and how her husband treats the whole thing is sad. Obviously the husband is dealing with some stuff and isn't wanting past things to be brought up and doesn't want to deal with it and how his father will react to it.

Overall I always enjoy reading this book and seeing how things change over time and how history can sometimes be forgotten until a moment brings it back. I love how many people this story connects and how Julia's friends are supportive of her even when her husband isn't.

As for the book to movie part, I enjoyed the movie and it stuck pretty close to the book in my opinion. But it's not one of my favorites for some reason and I can't figure out why.

Blog Twitter Instagram Facebook

[Berls]

I borrowed this book from a co-worker who insisted I read it, even though it's not "my kind of book." Man am I glad she did; if it weren't for responsibilities I would have finished it in a night.

I don't tend to like books about Nazi Europe - I don't know why exactly, it's just not a time period I enjoy reading. But this book is haunting and grips you. I found myself hoping for things that I knew were impossible and anxiously trying to pull together the threads between the modern day part of the story and the historical part.

It's told in a fascinating back and forth fashion - first we're in Paris during WWII, then we're in a modern Paris (I forget, maybe early 2000s), then we're back to WWII, back to modern, etc. And you immediately get the sense that there is SOME connection between the two stories, and trying to find that connection is what let's you dare to hope and get anxious and just... Wow! A must read!

[ibeforem]

This book had some very good parts. Sarah’s story, the story of the Vel d’Hiv round-up, representative of countless other children taken from Paris that day, was tragic and captivating. And because it is the story of a French girl, rather than a German or Polish one, it gives us a bit of a different perspective on what was happening. In fact, Sarah’s story is so good that I wish it had been the entire book. But instead, we are stuck discovering it through Julia.

I wasn’t a big fan of Julia. She was fine early on in the book, when we had Sarah’s narration to break hers up. But later in the book a lot of things about her rubbed me the wrong way. I felt like her obsession with Sarah’s story was very over-the-top, despite the connection to her apartment. Her neglect of her pregnancy, in particular, bothered me. I also didn’t like that we only got the bad things about her husband. He is almost never displayed in a good light, when there must have been some good there for her to marry him in the first place.

I also didn’t care for the way the book finished. Not because of how Sarah’s story ended — that actually made a lot of sense — but because of the relationship that Julia forms. It just didn’t fit for me.

Overall, this story is worth reading if you want to learn something about France during the war. But don’t be surprised if Julia kills it for you.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

A solid book with an intriguing mystery. Won't take long to finish it once you start!

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

On July 16, 1942 thousands of Jewish families where taken from their homes and held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city of Paris before being transferred to Auschwitz. This story centers around 10 year old Sarah Starzynski, who upon realizing they are being taken locks her four year old brother Michel in their secret hiding place, thinking she will return shortly to let him out; obviously that is not the case.

Now in 2002 reporter Julia Jarmond and her family move into an apartment once occupied by a Jewish family who were arrested the day of the Vélodrome d'Hiver. It is also the sixtieth year anniversary of this tragic event and has been assigned to write an article on it; which adds fuel to they fire to find out the identity of the apartment's former tenets.

This book was so incredibly sad and no matter how fictional tore your heart. Also, I thought Tatiana de Rosnay did a good job describing the backdrop of that time in history getting the point across of these horrid times. Even though I found the end result of Sarah's brother to be a little predictable, it still touched me with the devotion and determention the girl had in recovering her brother with a tragic ending.

Through, Julia we get the aftermath of the discovery of Sarah's secret hiding place and the fate of Sarah Starzynski. Not only does the Vélodrome d'Hiver become retold but also adds salt to the wounds of those who survived and witnessed this parade of sorts bringing memories who wished to be lost up to the surface.

Sarah's Key is a wonderfully written story that keeps you thinking throughout and is very moving in general, with a key to a cupboard as concrete evidence that it occurred.