Sarah's Key: From Paris to Auschwitz, one girl's journey to find her brother
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By Tatiana De Rosnay
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1 review
The Multi-Million Copy International Bestseller
Released in 2010 as a major motion picture starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sarah’s Key is perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and All the Light We Cannot See.
‘A remarkable novel. Like Sophie’s Choice, it’s a book that impresses itself upon one’s heart and soul forever’ Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife
Paris, July 1942. Sarah, a ten-year-old Jewish girl, is arrested by the French police in the middle of the night, along with her mother and father. Desperate to protect her younger brother, she locks him in a cupboard and promises to come back for him as soon as she can.
Paris, May 2002. Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, is asked to write about the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup – the infamous day in 1942 when French police rounded up thousands of Jewish men, women and children, in order to send them to concentration camps.
Sarah’s Key is the poignant story of two families, forever linked and haunted by one of the darkest days in France’s past. In this emotionally intense, page-turning novel, Tatiana de Rosnay reveals the guilt brought on by long-buried secrets and the damage that the truth can inflict when they finally come unravelled.
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All the bookclub members at the meeting had finished the book, and they all said that the book was very thought provoking and incredibly sad.
We all felt a little bit let down by the links within the book, we felt that there should have been more of alink between Julia and Sarah. Overall we found it hard to see why she was so determined to discover more about Sarah and the house. Perhaps it would have been more understandable if it had been a member of the French family trying to discover the history of their house rather than a slightly random American woman.
Most of the bookclub felt that the first part of the book was far more enjoyable while we were watching both Julia and Sarah. Once the historical element of Sarah's story had finished the book lost a little of its interest. This was probably because we found the story of Sarah's key to be more engaging than the story of Julia and her search for answers. We also felt that some of things that Sarah did towards the end of the book weren't exactly things we would expect her to do.
We also discussed the other characters in the book especially comparing the 10 year old Sarah with Julia's young daughter Zoe. We wondered whether the War had made Sarah into the resilient child she was, would Zoe be just as tough in those circumstances. Luckily she will probably never have to discover this for herself.
Overall we felt that the book was essentially a narrative about Julia and her life with a few incidentals about Sarah. It's basically all about Julia and how she feels about things, even her talking about the War was all very one sided. She didn't talk about how the Frnech police felt, or even tried to discover any of them as survivors to balance out the story she was discovering about Sarah.
We found it interesting that this story was based on a true story about the French involvement with the invading forces during the second World War. It was something we hadn't thought of previously and something that many of the bookclub would like to read more about.
It was also interesting to find out that this book although written in English feels like a translation, the reason for this being that the author normally writes in French. We didn't discover this until quite a way through the book, but it does makes sense when i mention that some of the bookclub members found the writing to be a little clunky.
Overall we gave this book 6.5 out of 10.
