Book Review: Sarah's Key

Book review Everyone's been talking about Sarah's Key and I've finally gotten around to reading it...well, actually, listening to it.  It is available as an eAudiobook through our Overdrive subscription (right now there are 7 people on the waiting list.)  I was glad I listened to the book , because it takes place in France and the narrator pronounced French names with a wonderful accent, which added a lot to the experience. The book tells the parallel stories of Sarah Starzynski and Julia Jarmond.  Sarah lives in Paris during the summer of 1942, when the French Police decide to take the Nazi's order to round up Jews over a certain age too aggressively and include small children.  They were taken to a detention center where they were held for days without food or water, then deported to detention camps around Paris, and finally to Auschwitz.  None of the children who were deported out of France survived.  Sarah's family is arrested.  Sarah thinks they will be coming back, so when her little brother refuses to come out of a cupboard, she locks him in with the promise that she will be back. Julia is an American journalist living in Paris in 2002.  The 60th anniversary of the round up is coming up and her boss asks her to write a story about it.  During her investigations she discovers that a Jewish family was living in the apartment her in-laws own.  She decides to find out what happened to them. The book alternates chapters between Sarah and Julia, telling their stories.  I would recommned this book to anyone who is interested in fictionalized accounts of history, and the Holocaust.  It is very readable and keeps you wanting to read. Sarah's Key By De Rosnay, Tatiana 2008-09 - St. Martin's Griffin 9780312370848 Check Our Catalog An Indie Next Selection Haunting and suspenseful, life-affirming and beautiful, "Sarah's Key" offers a compelling portrait of occupied Paris and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this little-known episode in French history. …More Read Alikes The Book Thief By Zusak, Markus 2007-09 - Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers 9780375842207 Check Our Catalog BookPage Notable Title Set during World War II in Germany, Zusak's groundbreaking novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing, encounters something she cant resist: books. …More The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story By Ackerman, Diane 2008-09 - W. W. Norton & Company 9780393333060 Check Our Catalog A true story--as powerful as "Schindler's List"--in which the keepers of the Warsaw Zoo saved hundreds of people from Nazi hands. …More Heidegger's Glasses By Frank, Thaisa 2011-10 - Counterpoint LLC 9781582437699 Check Our Catalog Heigegger's Glasses opens during the end of World War II in a failing Germany, when the Third Reich is in shambles. Hitler's strong belief in and reliance on the occult led to the formation of an underground society of scribes responsible for answering letters written to the imprisoned and deceased. A letter arrives at the compound that eminent philosopher Martin Heidegger wrote to his optometrist, kindling a series of events that puts everyone's safety and lives in danger. They embark on a desperate journey, racing to Heidegger's secluded hut in the Black Forest and the death-saturated camps of Auschwitz. Ultimately, the novel explores the way the dead are remembered and history is presented, with Heidegger's philosophy woven throughout in an easily digestible, albeit multifaceted manner. Thaisa Frank evocatively illustrates the Holocaust through a dreamlike, Alice in Wonderland frame, reconstructing the landscape of Nazi Germany from an entirely original vantage point. …More