Monday's Pick!

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay is a historical novel cleverly written to bring together past and present.
This is the story of Sarah Starzynski, a ten-year old girl living with her family in Paris, who were brutally forced from their home in 1942, by the Paris police, to be taken to the Vel' d'Hiv, a velodrome on the outskirts of Paris. They were housed there with thousands of Jewish families in deplorable conditions for several days before being sent away to Auschwitz. As we jump to the present, we meet Julia Jarmond, an American journalist living in Paris with her french husband and daughter. Pieces of Sarah's past are put together when Julia is given the assignment of writing about the 60th anniversary of the 'roundup' of July 16th 1942. Not surprisingly, she finds it difficult to find any information of the event since the local residents are not comfortable with the role that their country played. As her research continues, Julia begins to understand the ties that bind Sarah's family with her own.

This is a heart-wrenching, emotional account of a horrific part of France's past. I enjoyed de Rosany's style of writing: combining two different time periods and the effect that one family's history has on another 60 years later. It is a book you will not soon forget.