Sarah's Key (2007)

Excellent book! You won't put it down. Difficult subject matter, but love this author's writing style. ( )

I thought this book was ok. The most interesting part of the story happened within the first 100 pages--Sarah's story. The rest was so-so. I don't feel like the other main character's story added anything. Instead, it detracted from it. Overall, I'm glad I read this book, but I don't think I would tell somebody that this is a "must read". ( )

This novel has two overlapping storylines, in alternating chapters (until near the end, when it drops to one perspective). The first is about a young Jewish girl who lives in Paris. It's 1942, and when French police come in the middle of the night collecting Jewish families on orders of the Germans, Sarah's terrified four-year-old brother hides in a secret cupboard in the wall of their bedroom. She locks him in and pockets the key, promising to come back when the police let them go. But of course, they never do let them go. Sarah ends up in a camp, eventually separated from her parents, suffering from hunger, deplorable conditions, and horrific sights. All the while desperate to escape and return to the apartment where her little brother is waiting in the dark. It's such a sad story. The other storyline is modern time, about an American-born woman Julia, who lives in Paris working as a journalist. She is writing an article for the anniversary recognizing the day over 10,000 Parisian Jews were taken from their homes, an event which most locals around her seem to want to forget. She has a hard time finding people who remember the day and will actually talk to her. Her research leads her to the names of Sarah's family, and then it turns out she has a personal connection to the apartment where the little boy was left in the cupboard. As the two stories continue to dovetail, Sarah trying to find out what happened to her brother, and Julia attempting to track down the remnant's of Sarah's family, there's also a lot about how Julia's marriage is slowly unraveling, and how her life is changed by her research into the events of sixty years ago.

I thought I wasn't going to like this one, honestly- I had the impression it was over-hyped back in the day when it was all over the book blogs. Actually, it's a good read, very heartfelt, and I'm glad that the ending didn't have the final pat coincidence I thought I saw coming. It's been a long while since I read a Holocaust story. They're often hard for me to get through. This one was a fairly easy read and worth it.

from the Dogear Diary ( )

One of my favorite books that talks about the Holocaust. This book brings me tears because of such a horrific time. I get fascinated with history and learning about ones life during that time intrigued me more ( )

Sometimes books are a way to tell a story that people want to hide because they are ashamed of history.
Sarah's key is one of this books. As a granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor and lost family both from my maternal and parental side, I say thank you to Tatiana de Rosnay for writing something that people are afraid even to remember or talk.
Vil' d'Hiv is not a subject that the French are proud to talk about it or even teach it to the next generations. Julia, the main character is writing an article about the subject, and she looks around. Through finding new information about the material she finds out things about her political family and her story intertwines with the story of Sarah. While I was reading this book, I remembered The Alice Network a book that had the same idea as a plot. You have the historical part of a true story, and you build the fictional part of the scheme by bringing it to the contemporary time.
There should be more books like this because it is a way to teach events that people are not so keen about them and on the other hand we need to remember and never forget.
Yes, it is my first book I read by Tatiana de Rosnay, but it isn't the last one. I want to thank her for taking the risk of writing about a subject that the French are not so proud. ( )