Page-turner & Can't-put-it-down Alert!!!
Sarah's Key
"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." goodreads.com
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Based on a little-known part of the Holocaust, this story shows how we can look past and ignore atrocities done to others. What would I have done if I’d seen Sarah and her family rounded up?
I was interested in the wide variety of reviews of this book. Some readers loved it; others thought it was poorly written; some liked Sarah’s story but not Julia’s.
How is it that some books can pull you in so quickly that you know within a few pages that reading this is going to take precedence over other things on the todo list? Why was it a page-turner for me and not for others?
I was riveted to the story. Maybe I liked it because Julia was interested in finding out about a person and a place - family history connected to a well known historical period that wasn’t all that long ago.
Julia wanted Sarah and her family to know that someone cared enough to remember them and what happened. That's what drives me with family history. I want our ancestors to know I care enough to learn who they are and something about them - so they will be known and remembered by their posterity.
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