Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story that keeps you riveted.
Comment: I did not read this book as much as I devoured it over the course of two days. The back and forth between the two voices of the novel kept me turning the pages long after my bedtime. The story was interesting, and your heart just broke for Sarah and her family.

The book also shines a light on France's government involvement in Nazi Germany's "Final Solution." After finishing the novel I have been compelled to find more historical information on the Rafle du Vel d'Hiv.

Really a great book.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Powerful, haunting story
Comment: This story is a powerful, well written story than evokes tremendous emotion in the reader. The parallel story lines prevent the reader from putting the book down during the truly horrifying moments. Written in the first person, a writing style that enables the reader to more clearly envision the events, the story is cleverly crafted with just enough detail to allow the reader to empathize with Julia, the voice of the story as she desparately seeks out Sarah's story. This is by far the best book I have read in years.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: captivating
Comment: This novel, intriguing from the very beginning, tells the story of the Vel' D'Hiv' -- one of the largest Nazi roundups of Jews, carried out by French soldiers. It intertwines the story of Sarah, a ten-year-old girl in Paris, 1942, and Julia, a forty-five-year-old American ex-pat living in Paris, 2002. Julia's job takes her to researching the Vel' D'Hiv', and she learns more than she bargained for, including her family's darkest secret. The whole novel has a melancholy tone -- Julia has her fair share of marital and personal problems in addition to the downright depressing experiences of Sarah -- but it is beautifully written and altogether enticing. Sarah's tale is told intertwined with Julia's, deepening simultaneously with Julia's research, and some of the sense of loss and confusion that Sarah feels is echoed in Julia's chapters, in the context of her modern life. Overall, an excellent book, and one that will really make you think.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Fascinating & well-written novel with a too-pat conclusion
Comment: This is the second of Tatiana de Rosnay's novels that I have read, and like the previous one La Mémoire des murs it revolves around a mystery associated with a Parisian apartment.

In this case, the Marais apartment once occupied by ten-year-old Sarah and her family until they are rounded up in an infamous "rafle" of Parisian Jews in July 1942 is about to become home to American-born Julia Jaramond. The property, which has long been the property of her French husband's family, is now vacant, and will be refurbished. Julia, however, in the process of researching a story about the 60th anniversary of the "Vel d'Hiv" roundup, discovers that some of those deportees - who ended up at Auschwitz - had been the previous occupants. But there is no mention of the fate of their young daughter, Sarah...

Thus begins Julia's quest to discover what happened to Sarah, amidst indifference or hostility from many members of her husband's family - reactions that aren't too dissimilar from those of French society as a whole, which prefers to think of the `rafle' as something orchestrated by the Nazis (although it was carried out entirely by French police). The first half of the book is told in short chapters that alternate between the voice of the young Sarah and that of Julia; eventually, the only voice is that of Julia, as she intensifies her search for Sarah's fate.

Some of de Rosnay's plot twists are predictable, especially toward the end of the book when all the loose ends are neatly wrapped up and a bow placed atop their heads in a beautiful but too-tidy package. It's a little too convenient, for instance, that Julia's child happens to be a girl now almost exactly the age that Sarah was in 1942, for instance. (There is a particularly egregious twist or two toward the end, which I won't disclose as they would be spoilers.) Other plot twists are expected - the fate of Sarah's brother, for instance - and anything else would have been dramatic but implausible, as de Rosnay is astute enough to recognize. She avoids other twists that would have been far too blatant - every time I thought to myself, "oh, I know what is coming next", I didn't; the turn was a surprise, although never a shock. The result is a solid if unspectacular narrative, told by a novelist with a great eye for character, dialogue and sense of place. On the Virginia Woolf-to-Sophie Kinsella continuum, this definitely ranks toward the Kinsella end of the spectrum - it's far from unique or literary in either theme or structure - but it's a pageturner with a lot of meat on its bones and some very good writing. Another "thumping good read", if it's OK to say that about a novel that revolves around a tragic event.

While the book is a natural fit for anyone interested in the French experience of the Holocaust (and how they have dealt with the legacy), and would be a great book club read, anyone who is looking for an undemanding but dramatic read based on some strong characters would find it worthwhile. I gather they are making a movie based on the book in France; it would be interesting to see Kristin Scott Thomas (who speaks impeccable French and can put together a mean American accent when required) in the title role, even though she doesn't physically resemble Julia's character. (Hopefully they won't make the same casting errors as they did with the film of Diane Johnson's Le Divorce.)

Which reminds me - anyone curious about what it's like to live as a long-term expat or an American in Paris who doesn't want to tackle Wharton or Henry James, and who likes this book, should try Diane Johnson's three novels (Le Divorce (William Abrahams Book), Le Mariage, L'Affaire). They are more dramatic novels of manners in nature, whereas de Rosnay's is a serious drama, but they do a beautiful job of explaining what happens when Americans try to coexist with the French in Paris. (The film was a very bad version of a not-at-all-bad book.)

Hopefully we will now see some of de Rosnay's other work appear in English??

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: An heartbreaking, yet hopeful, journey through a dark time
Comment: "Sarah's Key" is heartbreaking tale of the personal individual costs felt by the victims of the Nazi Holocaust. The personal story of the titular character, Sarah Starczynski, during that awful time runs parallel with the current story of journalist Julia Jarmond, an expatriate living in the modern era France and assigned to research one of the more shameful incidents during the Vichy French collaboration with Hitler's Germany, the Vel' D'Hiv roundups in 1942.

The character of Sarah was one of the thousands of French Jews who were rounded up and sent to concentration camps where nearly all of them would perish. Unbeknownst to Julia (until she began her research), Sarah's story has a direct connection to her own life and family. As Julia uncovers more of the details behind the Vel' D'Hiv roundup and Sarah Starczynski, she finds that she is also uncovering secrets that threaten to hurt her family and undermine everything she thought she knew and understood in her life.

"Sarah's Key" is one of the more gripping personal novels I have ever read regarding World War II and the Holocaust. The book is an absolute page-turner in spite of (or because of) the heart-breaking nature of the story. The meshing of the Julia's modern day tale of research and discovery with Sarah's story of heartbreak and attempt at survival is never jarringly out of place. Instead, the time period changes bolster the story and each builds on each other. The font style in the book is even different for the two periods.

I have read that "Sarah's Key" is comparable to Meryl Streep's Holocaust epic "Sophie's Choice". From what I know of that film, I can understand how well the comparison fits. The Holocaust was one of the most brutal, horrifying and shameful events in human history. However, as long as there continue to be tales (fictional or not) written such as "Sarah's Key", the impact of the cost on humanity will never be forgotten. This is a must read.

---