Book Review: Sarah’s Key

Book Review:

Sarah’s Key

By Tatiana de Rosnay

In July 1942, French police gathered thousands of Jews living in Paris and the French countryside at the orders of the occupying Germans, to be deported to the Nazi concentration camps. Sarah’s Key is the story of a young girl who survived Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup – the challenges to her survival and dealing with the awful aftermath of that summer. Sarah’s story is intertwined with that of Julia, an American journalist living in France, researching Vel’ d’Hiv.’ Julia learns of a personal connection to France’s dark spot in history, and becomes increasingly invested in researching the roundups.

Life in France during WWII was something I was unfamiliar with, and therefore enjoyed learning a bit about the country at the time. I found Sarah’s Key well written and easy to read despite the difficult subject. De Rosnay also did a great job depicting the range and the conflicting human emotions, that the 1942 events stirred up, as well as the often conflicting emotions of everyday life (Julia is also going though through some personal crises as she’s researching Vel’ d’Hiv’).

Recommendation: Would highly recommend Sarah’s Key.

Grade: A

One thought on “Book Review: Sarah’s Key”

  1. I thought the book worked well as a historical novel, but the 21st century romance (Julia) was too predicable. I have personal connections to the subject.

    //Comment edited in 2019 due to a broken link. The blog Silver Season no longer has a link to a Sarah’s Key book review.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *