Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
Pub. Date: September 2008
Genre: Historical Fiction
320pp

Synopsis from BN.com:
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten-year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door to door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding place—and promises to come back for him as soon as they are released.

Sixty Years Later: Sarah’s story intertwines with that of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup. In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah, and to questions about her own future.

In Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay offers up a mesmerizing story in which a tragic past unfolds, the present is torn apart, and the future is irrevocably altered.

Why I Picked It:
I bought this book years ago knowing it's subject matter would be hard to read, but also that it's exactly the kind of book I love.

My Review:
Powerful. Heartbreaking. Uncomprehensible.

I could not put this book down, and more than once found myself reading with tears pouring down my face. I am well aware of the Holocaust and the Nazis and those horrors, but to find out that the French Police also rounded up their own people and sent them off, was to put it lightly, shocking to me.

Sarah is a strong, brave little girl who in a 10-year-old's underestimation of the events unfolding around her, locks her 4 year old brother into a hidden cupboard in their apartment when the French police come knocking at their door. Little does she know, but quickly does she discover, that she won't be right back. She is terrified for him, heartbroken knowing that he trusted her to take care of him, and dreading the inevitable as she is ripped screaming from her mother, and loaded onto yet another train.

The story alternates from Sarah's perspective and that of Julia Jarmond in 2002, an American journalist living in Paris, as she is tasked with writing a 60 year anniversary piece about the round up. She discovers that she is more closely linked to the events than she could've imagined.

I always say that when a book/movie/television show can bring me to tears, it's brilliant. It's an amazing talent to put the words together in such a way as to evoke such strong emotions in your audience. I loved this book, have passed it along to my sister, and will continue to pass it along.

Even better -- the movie comes out next month!! I can imagine certain things I would change for the movie version. Very excited to see how they handle it.