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Sarahs Key Editorial Reviews
Source: Product Description
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.
Sarahs Key Customer Reviews:
Average Rating: 4.0 (559 reviews)
Rating: 5 (It's called Elle s'appelait Sarah in the French Version) Was helpful to 74 from 91 votes
I'm here in Paris for the summer for an NEH Seminar entitled Visions of the Dark Years: World War II and its legacy in France, and I'm doing a project on the "rafle du Vel d'Hiv"- the massive round-up of Jews that took place in Paris on July 16th, 1942. I purchased this book in French at the bookstore at Le Memorial de la Shoah, not knowing that it had been translated from English. The story is haunting, and interesting, as we follow it in flashbacks. I am doing an annotated bibliography of books on the subject for my seminar project. This story will appeal to my younger students, teaching them at the same time of this shameful episode of French collaboration with the German occupiers, under the Vichy government. France was the only occupied European country to pass its own laws regarding Jews, which were even stricter than those of the Third Reich. By looking the other way,and pretending not to know where the Jews were being transported after the local French camps at Drancy and Pithiviers (they were immediately transported to Auschwitz) some 9,000 French police catalogued and arrested over 13,000 French and foreign Jews residing in France, and sent them to the Velodrome d'Hiver, a large stadium in Paris. This is a shameful episode in French history, retold in a poignant and gripping fashion.
Rating: 3 (Story has great potential, but ultimately not fufilling) Was helpful to 194 from 218 votes
The theme and historical context of this book is certainly compelling and the moral issues raised by the story, though familiar, are still intriguing. However, once the key elements of Sarah's story are revealed, the book looses steam and we are left with the banal life crisis facing our journalist narrator who comes off frequently as more than a little spineless, letting the people around her direct the flow of her thoughts and actions. The angst of modern life over-shadows past tragedy. Most of the author's characters seem stereotyped, merely cardboard cut-outs who are ill-suited to the task of explicating the difficult gray areas between good and evil. When Joshua, Julia's editor, points out to her the fact that she has left out one whole side of Sarah's difficult story, he might as well be describing this novel. It never really does address the issues of responsibility and moral culpability in any deep and meaningful way. When Sarah's voice disappears from the narrative, the book looses its psychological edge and Julia's subsequent quest seems to lack real purpose. The confrontations which do take place towards the end of the novel are not the one's a reader might be anticipating and ultimately, leave the reader feeling unsatisfied and disappointed. Read this book to learn more about the Jewish experience in occupied France but don't expect to be challenged--this book doesn't take readers anywhere near the true tragedy symbolized by Sarah's key.
Rating: 4 (Could Not Put it Down!) Was helpful to 8 from 12 votes
This book appealed to me because I am a Francophile and because I love historical fiction, particularly WWII fiction. The brief description of the story also intrigued me. Once I began reading, I could barely put the book down. I learned more about the German occupation of France and France's role in the deportation of Jews than I previously knew, but I also became totally immersed in Julia's story and her determination to discover the truth about Sarah. I felt the characters were very well developed because I found myself truly caring about them. I also found the ending very satisfying, not necessarily a "happily ever after" ending or a complete tying together of loose ends, but a very appropriate ending that in my opinion offered hope for Julia. Don't expect this novel to explore all aspects of the Vel' d'Hiv roundups, but do expect a great story! My rating is 4 1/2 stars.
Rating: 4 (elegantly articulated but concluded with a cliche) Was helpful to 11 from 15 votes
This is a story of two families. For most of the book, de Rosnay's terse style keeps the narratives from the maudlin. Sarah's story, especially, is delicately presented. No, the full historical horror of the Vel d'Hiv roundup isn't here, but the microcosm of one girl's experience is perhaps more painful to absorb, since it can't easily be held at a distance by the reader.
Julia is a very believable narrator for most of the book, presenting enough detail about her life in Paris to draw us in, but not getting lost in introspection. Her inability to articulate a tidily logical motivation for her fascination with Sarah's story is more convincing than pages of psychological gymnastics.
The flaw is in the ending. Both Sarah's and Julia's narratives cry out for a larger meaning, for significance. History has provided that for Sarah, to some degree. But if Sarah's story is too large for a single meaning, Julia's may be too small. And the author seems to feel that, having ended one narrative without the intervention of any element of the formally romantic, she should give imagiation and emotion free reign with the second story. The natural denouement passes thirty pages before the book ends, which is a pity. With De Rosnay's attempt at closure, the novel sinks quietly into the banal.
But, sans the last 30 pages, it is a fascinating book.
Rating: 5 (Wonderful book!) Was helpful to 3 from 5 votes
I read this book in a day...was pulled to the storyline and wanted to find out what happened to the characters. I'm surprised that I have never heard of this event before. If you are interested in the history of WWII (as I am), this book will engross you. It reminds a person of the depths that people can be drug down to, but it also reminds you of the heroism that ordinary people rise to to help others. A wonderful read!
