Sarah's Key, by Tatiana De Rosnay

[Elizabeth Rogers 47]

"Sarah's Key" is a special novel that encompasses history, romance, and a national tragedy.

The plot has two major threads that are distinct. Separated by years, but connected by an event and a house.
The" Author's Note" states : "This is not a historical work." Truthfully enough, much of the action takes place in the present. She goes on to say that all characters in the book are completely fictitious, but that all description of what took place on July 16, 1942, is what actually took place. So the book is rooted in historical face, and this impacts the present-day lives of the people inhabiting this book.

There is a ;mystery in the book that kept me turning the pages, fretting and worrying; and, yet this is not a mystery in the usual sense. Important facts are not revealed until close to the end. It involves Sarah, a young girl whose life was impacted by the events of July 16th, 1942, and and her little brother.

There are two heroines: a girl named Sarah, a Jewish 11-year-old ;who was one of the nearly 10,000 arrested when the story begins.

The other heroine is Julia, an American woman living in Paris with her French husband Bertrand, and their 11-year-old daughter Zoe. Julia is from the Boston area, but since her adolescence she has been fascinated by Paris. She wanted to be a journalist since she was Zoe's age, and began to learn her craft writing for the high school newspaper.

Now Julia writes for a newspaper called "Seine Scenes", mostly read by Americans living in Paris. Most French people have not heard of it. Presently Julia is working on a project about the "Vel'de'Hiv' roundup". The 60th commemoration is up soon. She discovers that the facts of the event had been covered up and not taught in schools in the 70's. She begins her research by searching for any survivors that are left.

When Julia tells her husband's family what she is working on, they are unusually uncomfortable with the subject. They do not want to help her or to discuss it at all. In fact, they strongly suggest that Julia should drop the subject entirely and not dig into unsavory events of the past. But Julia is horrified by every detail she learns, and cannot let it go.

First of all, the French people would like to blame the Nazi's for what happened, and are quite successful at that since it was the time of Nazi occupation. However, the people were actually arrested by French policemen, following orders of Nazis.

At first, the chapters alternate between the two heroines, and necessarily between two eras. The first chapters are only a few pages long, and at first I found it irritating to get interested in one story and have to jump to another in quick succession, like a see-saw. Both stories were compelling from the start.

This is a serious work, and totally engrossing. What we learn is horrifying, but rather than try to hide what happened in the past, it is important to know what people suffered, and how some rose above their circumstances and made a life.

I have learned how the Nazi occupation affected the people of France, and how choices made by a nation in wartime can bring shame on a population for generations to come.

It is also a story about people in their ordinary lives with many personal choices and challenges. It is very well written. I will now search out other books by this author, expecting good things there as well. I give this book 4 out of 4 stars.

[S dot Lennon]

I really enjoyed this book! It was so well written and such a moving and yes, at moments, horrifying story. When the Holocaust is invloved, authors are tasked with a very sensitive subject and she did a great job with this novel. Such unimaginable hardships that such a young girl was faced with. Great book. I always recommend this book to people.

[Fran]

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