Karen’s Blog

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This is a very sad, truly haunting book, whose images and impressions will linger with you long after you’ve set the finished book down.

Set in two times, 1942 occupied France and in today’s Paris, the novel follows the stories of two very different women, and how their lives intersect.

The first is Sarah Starzynski, a ten-year-old girl, born in France to her Polish Jewish immigrant parents. She and her 4-year-old brother Robert have been shielded from the meaning and events of the war, and when they are made to wear yellow stars on their clothing, her mother explains that it is because they should be proud to be Jewish. So when the events of July 16, 1942 - the great Vélodrome d’Hiver round-up - take place, her ignorance leads to tragedy. Because the men who come to take them away are French policemen, not the scary Germans, Sarah lets her brother go to their “secret hiding place,” and complies when he asks her to lock him in, and take the key. They both assume she’ll be home in a little while. Their mother knows about the little cupboard, so it is always stocked with a jar of water, some bread and a flashlight.

The main character in today’s Paris is Julia, an American journalist married to a native Parisian. Assigned to do a story on “the Vel d’Hiv” for its upcoming anniversary, she faces ignorance and denial from the French almost everywhere she turns. Younger French folk have never heard of it, and her Parisian husband and his family don’t want to talk about it. In speaking with his grandmother, Mamé, she begins to make connections about the apartment they are currently renovating, and her inlaws, always cold to her, resent her doing any digging.

Julia, who grew up in Boston, had never heard of “the Vel d’Hiv” round-up, and neither had I. Julia’s research, and Sarah’s story of her family’s treatment at the hands of the French policemen, combine for a riveting, and tragic tale. It is not all depressing though, as we also follow Julia’s own story as she is dealing with what she learns as her own marriage is ending and a new life is beginning.

This is an excellent book, compelling and well-written, and once I started it, I read it until I finished it in one night. I completely reccomend this book to anyone who believes we must learn our history in order to not repeat it. The real facts behind the novel are given at the end, in a section called “Historical perspective” and the whole book will haunt you and stay with you forever. It is no wonder it was an International Bestseller, and I fully expect it to be one here as well. It is scheduled to be released in October 2008.