Sarah's Key
From Paris to Auschwitz, one girl's journey to find her brother
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4.4 • 127 Ratings
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
The Multi-Million Copy International Bestseller
Released in 2010 as a major motion picture starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sarah's Key is perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and All the Light We Cannot See.
'A remarkable novel. Like Sophie's Choice, it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul forever' Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife
Paris, July 1942. Sarah, a ten-year-old Jewish girl, is arrested by the French police in the middle of the night, along with her mother and father. Desperate to protect her younger brother, she locks him in a cupboard and promises to come back for him as soon as she can.
Paris, May 2002. Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, is asked to write about the 60th anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup - the infamous day in 1942 when French police rounded up thousands of Jewish men, women and children, in order to send them to concentration camps.
Sarah's Key is the poignant story of two families, forever linked and haunted by one of the darkest days in France's past. In this emotionally intense, page-turning novel, Tatiana de Rosnay reveals the guilt brought on by long-buried secrets and the damage that the truth can inflict when they finally come unravelled.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the V lodrome 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 T zac, 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 V l' 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.
Customer Reviews
One story better than the other
This book is made up of two tales. One concerning the Jewish holocaust in occupied France and the other a modern day story. I preferred the first, the exploration of what happened to a character in the past. The story here was fascinating and tragic, a tale of devastation and loss, but written with poignancy. The second story about a modern day heroine, did not quite capture my heart and my imagination in the same way. Nevertheless, a good read.
Really AMAZING
Best book I've read in a while. Absolutely recommend it.
Sarah's Key
Absolutely loved this book, beautifully written. Had me gripped from page 1. A great holiday read but quite disturbing and thought provoking.