Jill S. (seaotter) reviewed on 4/13/2016 + 3 more book reviews

Sarah's Key is an excellent story of how the lives of two families become intertwined after one of the characters, a journalist in present day, is assigned to write a magazine article for the 60th anniversary of the Jewish roundup in German-occupied Paris in 1942 known as Vel' d'Hiv.' Tatiana de Rosnay uses a clever text structure that alternates between Sarah and her Jewish family in 1942 and the journalist's present-day experiences while she researches and writes about the event. The horrors of the mistreatment of the Jewish families were difficult for me to read because of their emotional impact so returning to the present-day story for a chapter allowed me to take a breath before returning to Sarah's harrowing tale. The book is extremely well written and was especially timely as I was reading it while in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where Anne Frank wrote her diary and was also sent to the Nazi concentration camps. Sarah's Key is a heartbreaking story that stays with you long after your read the last page. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in WWII and Jewish history as well as anyone who enjoys a well-crafted story.

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