Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
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Book Reviews of Sarah's Key
Book Review: One of the best holocaust based fiction novels I have read....
Summary: 5 Stars
July 1942 marked a dark period in the history of France where thousands of Jewish families were rounded up and forcibly kept in the Velodrome d'Hiver. Sarah's Key is the story of 2 families tied to this horrible time in an unusual way. Sarah is the main focus of the holocaust story and Julia is the main focus of a modern day story. The stories a told in a parallel fashion: one chapter Sarah, one chapter Julia. About half way through Sarah's story stops and Julia is the focus. It is an interesting way to unravel a story and Tatiana wrote it extremely well.
The story starts with Sarah's family being rounded up by French policemen. Her mother, her brother, and Sarah stay in their upstairs apartment and the father hides in the cellar at night in case a round up like this happens as he heard rumors it may happen at any moment. When the policemen come in looking for Jews, Sarah has her 4 year old brother, Michel, hide in a cupboard in their play room. She promises Michel she will come back and let him out after the police leave. Sarah had no idea she would be led away with her parents to the Velodrome d'Hiver then on to internment and concentration camps. What happens to Michel?
Julia is an American living in Paris with her husband, Bertrand, and child, Zoe. Julia writes for an American magazine about Paris. Her editor assigns her an article about the roundup as the 60th anniversary is coming up. Julia gets caught up in her research and is determined to find out more about Sarah and what happened to her brother. She also unravels many family secrets of Bertrands family
Both sides were written so well. You feel the emotions that each character feels. There were predictable parts but it wasn't disappointing. There were several shocking moments that had me hanging on and not able to stop reading. I was sincerely hoping the end of this story would be different but it still ended really well. This makes a great lazy weekend read! I also read in several places that this is being made into a movie. I would definitely go see it!
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Book Review: heart-breaking and moving
Summary: 5 Stars
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
July 16, 1942. The French police rounded up Jewish families to be taken to Velodrome d'Hiver,an indoor stadium known as Vel' d'Hiv for short. Thousands of Jewish families were locked up there for days before being shipped off to Auschwitz. Sarah is a young girl who hid her brother in a locked cupboard in their apartment to be kept safe until her family was released by the police.She promises to come back for him. Sarah did not understand what was happening and that she wasn't to be going home. Once she does, she is desperate to get to her brother, to save him.
July, 2002. Julia Jarmond is an American writer who has lived in Paris for the last 25 years. Her boss wants her to do an article on Vel' d'Hiv as the sixtieth anniversay approaches. This causes tension between Julia and her French husband Bertrand, as the French did not want to be reminded of that dark period in their history.
The first half of the novel alternates between Sarah's story and Julia's search for information. Julia discovers a link between her French family and Sarah. The second half of th book is Julia's search to discover what happened to Sarah, while dealing with the changes in her life and marriage.
This is easily one of the best books I have read this year. Sarah's story is heartbreaking as she discovers the horror of what is happening to her and her parents.
The woman had little by little disappeared. She had become gaunt and pale, and she never smiled or laughed. She smelled rank, bitter. Her hair had become brittle and dry, streaked with gray. The girl felt like her mother was already dead.
Not only was this story well written but it brought to my attention the plight of the Jew's in France, something I did not know that much about. The book is heart-breakingly beautiful and touching, a story that will stay with me a long time. I read this in two days because it was so riveting. You won't be disappointed in this brilliant novel.
my rating 5/5
Book Review: An Excellent, Heartbreaking Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book, Sarah's Key, even though I cried almost all through the whole story and carried the sorrow it evoked within me long afterwards. I saw Sarah a little girl in 1942 and I saw Julia, a journalist in 2002 who learns about the roundup of the French Jews, Sarah among them, and sets out to find out what happened to Sarah. Both came alive to carry their story as if they were real and not fictional characters created by the author. I have read a lot of Holocaust stories, but had never heard of non-Germans, non-Nazis carrying out the deportation of the Jewish people. How the French police could act so robotically in this most henious of acts is really upsetting. What would have happened, I wonder, if the entire force had refused to do the Nazi's bidding? It makes one wonder what acts we ourselves might be capable of.
On July 16, 1942, 10,000 French Jews, parents and their children were taken from their homes by the French police to a large enclosure where they endured thirst, hunger,deplorable unsanitary conditions, and most of all a dreaded fear. Afterwards they were separated into three groups, men, women, children, and all but the few who escaped, Sarah among them, were exterminated. I still feel deep sorrow as I write this review, nearly a week after reading the book, and have to hold back the tears for this little 10-year-old Sarah whose heart was broken and who never in her lifetime, ever really mended that broken heart. How many others who survived the horror of those years lived the rest of their lives with broken hearts?
The chapters are short, especially the ones concerning Sarah. They needed to be, so we could stand to read them. I must mention that the French, like people all over the world, have among them, individuals who would risk all, perhaps even lay down their lives to help another human being, and they were the ones who saved Sarah's life even if they couldn't keep her heart from breaking.
Eunice Boeve, Author of Maggie Rose and Sass
Book Review: Don't let the negative reviews ruin the book for you!
Summary: 5 Stars
I really don't understand why there are so many negative reviews. I think perhaps people expect too much: this was meant to be an "oprah" type book, not the next Diary of Anne Frank. To me, the author's use of alternating story lines worked well. I don't think they were meant to be different points of view, really, but Julia sharing Sarah's story (though, of course, there were parts that Julia couldn't have known). I imagined the whole thing as a sort of memoir/novel that Julia might have written years later. And I was happy with the ending. Sarah's part of the story ended appropriately, it somehow wouldn't have been realistic for everything to have ended happily.
Anyway, I just think people might expect too much out of this NOVEL. Someone stated that it was unrealistic for Sarah to have escaped at all...but I'm pretty sure that there are some children who really did escape, and there is nothing wrong with an author imagining what might have happened. I think the main theme of the the Julia part of the book was to teach that such horrors should not be forgotten, or ignored, but mourned and acknowledged, so that they don't happen again.
I was fully absorbed by this book, and I certainly didn't find Julia to be an unsympathetic character like others did...I think that she focused on Sarah's life so much (to the point of obsession), so that she didn't have to face the reality of the end of her marriage. And I thought the ending was sweet, even if it was a bit cheesy. There is nothing wrong with adding a bit of light, easy (even if somewhat trite) hint of romance to balance out the horrors of what happened to the Jewish people of Paris.
Book Review: Tragic, truth, and a story too long left forgotten
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend lent me Sarah's Key for my vacation. I really did not want to read it. Why? I have read enough (or so I thought) tragic novels focused on the horrors committed during during WWII, especially the atrocities committed towards Jewish families.
When I finally started reading Sarah's Key, I discovered that Tatiana de Rosnay was able to illuminate the horrible actions of France's own police force during the Vel' d'Hiv, a roundup of Jewish families (men, women and children), through the story of Sarah, a ten-year-old girl living in Paris in July 1942. Intertwined with Sarah's story is that of Julia Jarmond, an American ex-patriot journalist who has lived in France for years (we're talking 80s, 90s, 2000s) with her arrogant, French husband, Bertrand, and her daughter, Zoe.
Past and present merge together as Julia's life takes unexpected turns and as Sarah's life is forever changed when she, her mother and father are hauled off by French police. Sarah's younger brother, not even 5 years-old, is hidden in a secret cupboard in the bedroom, waiting for his sister to come home and unlock the cupboard with the key she takes with her as she is hauled away...
I am very glad I finally read this novel and would recommend it to anyone looking for a plain and simple "good read." If you are interested in the Holocaust, France, WWII fiction, Jewish history, or historical fiction, you'll love this fictional take on a very real and very tragic but true moment in France's history. That being said, I feel that even if you are not interested in the above topics, this novel will still be a rewarding read.