Sarah’s Key

Vince Alongi /Foter

Sarah’s Key
Author: Tatiana de Rosnay

I read this book because it was chosen as the next book to be read by the members of a book club that I am involved in. I had looked at this book previously, but the description of the story seemed a bit too emotional for me to rush right out and buy it. Following is my review and/or thoughts about this book.

Sarah’s Key is a work of fiction that is interwoven with elements of real historical events in France during the Holocaust period. The author chose to write this book with alternating story lines and periods. The main characters are Julia, a present day journalist doing a story about the roundup of Jews in France some 60 years earlier, and Sarah, the only surviving member of a Jewish family that was part of this roundup. The story starts out with Julia being assigned to do a story about the 60th anniversary of the roundup of Jews in France. The alternate story line starts out with Sarah and her family being rudely awakened by the French police on that fateful day, July 16, 1942.

It is probably not too hard to figure out that Sarah’s story line is the most emotional. Sarah is only ten years old and very frightened and confused. The first reference to the “Key” comes very early in Sarah’s story when she quickly locks her younger brother in a hidden compartment in the closet before the French police make it thru the apartment door and round up the rest of the family. She promised her brother she would be back for him.

Julia’s interweaving story involves her path of discovery regarding the role France played in the holocaust, the apparent lack of acknowledgement by the French people regarding this role (including some of Julia’s extended family members) and how this knowledge comes full circle to affect her in a very personal way.

Despite the fact, that Sarah’s story was difficult to read, her spirit, her strength, fascinated me and her soulful way of dealing with the situation, she found herself in, and I felt disappointed at times when the story line switched to Julia.

Julia is an American, but had always been in love with Paris, or at least the idea of Paris. She moved there as a young adult and ended up falling in love, marrying a Frenchman and having a child with him. As I mentioned earlier, Julia was assigned to do a story about the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup. She discovered that many people were not comfortable talking about this event, especially her in-laws. Her persistence in pursuing this story causes a great deal of tension and anger within her marriage, but also leads to an awakening of some sort for Julia.

I thought that this book was a bit sluggish at times, and I was somewhat confused about the root cause of Julia’s deep emotional attachment to the pursuit of Sarah’s story. However, overall I enjoyed it very much and looked forward to getting back to it. I have read other books before that were written with interweaving story lines and sometimes found this method irritating, but it worked for me in this book.

Reviewed by Sofia V. McCartney

Sofia V. McCartney is a writer and website designer living in Minnesota.

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