Sarah's Key - Tatiana DeRosnay (2007)Oh you delightful little book, you managed to restore some delight for me in picking up and getting lost in a book. I was just lamenting last week that it had been such a long time, since I had really enjoyed a read, something that you can't wait til bedtime to pick up and would recommend to all of your friends.
Sarah's Key is told concurrently in two parts. The first is Sarah a 10 year old Jewish girl who with her family is taken by the French police, first to the Vel'd'Hiv, a bicycle stadium in Paris in 1942. When the police arrive Sarah convinces her small brother to hide in a cupboard, as she thinks she and her family will return soon. Instead they find themselves in horrid conditions, and then transported to a camp where the adults are separated from the children, and sent on to concentration camps.
The second of the stories is about Fiona, an American journalist who has lived in Paris for 25 years and is sent to cover the 60t anniversary of this often forgotten story.
Told with a fresh voice, I felt that the author was able to provide a unique spin on this war story and it was interesting to hear of the French attitude to this dark place in their past story. Unbelievable that people could be living in what was Drancy the French camp for Jewish prisoners, who were sent on from here to camps in Poland and across Europe.
Oh little book I enjoyed you a lot, but now I have to face the evil study and avoid the bookshelves temptations for a while longer. I wonder how long it will be til I find the next enjoyable read? Weeks, months? Who knows!
4/5 - I am sure I will remember you for the rest of the year.
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