Rating: ****
Tags: Fiction, General, France, Paris (France), Family secrets, Americans, Literary, Historical, Contemporary Women, Historical fiction, Jewish, Jews, World War; 1939-1945, Women Authors, War & Military, Americans - France, World War; 1939-1945 - France, Jews - France, Lang:en
Summary
A New York Times bestseller. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a
ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the
French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but
not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the
family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few
hours.Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th
anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an
article about this black day in France's past. Through her
contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of
long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah.
Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal,
from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and
beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins
to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her
marriage and her life. Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a
brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under
occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround
this painful episode. Tatiana de Rosnay was born in the
suburbs of Paris and is of English, French and Russian
descent. She is the author of nine French novels.
She also writes for French Elle, and is a literary critic
for Psychologies magazine. Tatiana de Rosnay is married and has
two children. Sarah's Key is her first novel written in
her mother tongue, English. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten
year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the
French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she
locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's
apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few
hours.Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary,
journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about
this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary
investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family
secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself
compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term
in the Vel' d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes
into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in
France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.Tatiana de
Rosnay offers a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of
France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that
surround the painful episode in that country's history.
"De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups
and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were
arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city,
then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia
Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and
is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac,
with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an
American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th
anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns
that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was
acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were
dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find
out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka
Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old
Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah,
the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the
more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and,
finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the
novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English,
her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting
loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence
so absorbing, that the book is hard to put
down."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “This is
the shocking, profoundly moving and morally challenging story .
. . It will haunt you, it will help to complete you . . .
nothing short of miraculous.”—Augusten
Burroughs“A powerful novel . . . Tatiana de Rosnay has
captured the insane world of the Holocaust and the efforts of
the few good people who stood up against it in this work of
fiction more effectively than has been done in many scholarly
studies. It is a book that makes us sensitive to how much evil
occurred and also to how much willingness to do good also
existed in that world.”—Rabbi Jack Riemer, South
Florida Jewish Journal“Just when you thought you might
have read about every horror of the Holocaust, a book will come
along and shine a fierce light upon yet another haunting
wrong. Sarah's Key is such a novel. In remarkably
unsparing, unsentimental prose . . . through a lens so personal
and intimate, it will make you cry—and
remember.”—Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save
Us“A remarkable novel written with eloquence and
empathy.”—Paula Fox, author of Borrowed Finery"A
story of hearts broken, first by the past, then by family
secrets, and the truth that begins to repair the pieces. A
beautiful novel."—Linda Francis Lee, bestselling author
of The Ex-Debutante“Sarah's Key unlocks the star crossed,
heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the
60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book
will stay on your mind long after it's back on the
shelf.”—Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly
Heights“This is a remarkable historical novel . . . it's
a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul
forever.”—Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday
Wife“Masterly and compelling, it is not something that
readers will quickly forget. Highly
recommended.”—Library Journal (starred review)"De
Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and
deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were
arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city,
then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia
Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and
is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac,
with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an
American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th
anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns
that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was
acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were
dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find
out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka
Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old
Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah,
the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the
more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and,
finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the
novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English,
her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting
loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence
so absorbing, that the book is hard to put
down."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)