Sarah's Key

A Novel

By: Tatiana de Rosnay

Narrated by: Polly Stone

Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

©2007 Tatiana de Rosnay (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Polly Stone's delivery of Sarah's story is riveting with its spare emotional power.” —AudioFile Magazine

“This is a remarkable historical novel, a book which brings to light a disturbing and deliberately hidden aspect of French behavior towards Jews during World War II. Like Sophie's Choice, it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart and soul forever.” —Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife and The Covenant

“Sarah's Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book will stay on your mind long after it's back on the shelf.” —Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights

First half was great

The historical references in the beginning made for a great story. The rest of the book was not that great, seemed to drag on and very limited history referenced in the second half.

Beautiful Way to remember

This author and narrator did a beautiful job. Thank you for creating this and giving it a an identity of how we can think of the tragedy of the Holocaust in our current daily life.

Beautifully sad. A horror that we must know.

I loved it. It is very sad, but a horror that we must know.

Love this story

This is a sad but beautiful story. I couldn’t wait to listen to the whole thing. The narrator did a great job. I highly recommend this book.

French Holocaust:Vel' d'Hiv.Outstanding narration.

Interesting story of an American Jewish woman, Julia Jarmond, living in Paris for 25 years and seemingly happily married to a non-Jewish Frenchman. A journalist working for an English language magazine, she becomes obsessed with the story of the round-up of Jews at Vel' d'Hiv in 1942. In particular, she discovers that a girl named Sarah Starzynski was among the group and that, after the war, it had never been determined just what had happened to her. This is a mystery she is determined to resolve if possible, and this plot is intertwined with Julia's internal struggles to come to terms with her heritage and, as it turns out, her husband's attitude toward her and her efforts. These two issues become intertwined more and more as the book develops, and although there was too much jumping back and forth in time in the beginning, eventually the book settles down. The prose isn't lyrical, but it does get the message across. There is too much "telling" and not enough "showing", and you need to have a high tolerance for this, as I do.

The book is enlivened by the narrator, who gives distinct voices and accents to each character, a very diverse and challenging collection. It's always difficult to read about the Holocaust, and I had not been familiar with the Vel' d'Hiv or these aspects of the French Nazi's. It's a book that I am glad to have "read."

Important topic, mediocre writing, worse narrator

I don't want to discourage anyone from reading this book. I read a lot of WWII nonfiction, and I am amazed that I never heard of this1942 roundup in Paris of all the Jews--not by Nazis but by the French police. The Jews were locked in an arena for days without food and water or sanitary facilities, then transported to a camp. Fathers went to Auschwitz, and later, mothers were torn from their children and babies and sent to Auschwitz for execution. The frightened, hungry, filthy little ones had to fend for themselves, then they, too, went to death camps. As a Jewish woman, I think everyone should learn what happened. Research this atrocity and read about it.

As a book editor, I have to say the writing is pedestrian. The author found a great subject and a good hook--a Jewish girl locking her four-year-old brother in a cupboard so he would be safe. The girl assumes her family will be allowed back to their home, but of course they are not, and the little boy dies of thirst and starvation. The author raises profound questions pertaining to our responsibility to history's victims. Should we keep their memory and suffering alive, or is it better to relegate them to the past? If a victim wants to forget her past, make a new life, and keep her grief secret from her loved ones, does an outsider have the right to remind her and expose her true identity? I applaud the author for exploring those ideas.

But I have to wonder about de Rosney's s editor. The pacing of this book is terrible. The plot is out of balance, back heavy. Instead of stopping where it should, it goes on and on. Rather than ending in a satisfying, powerful way, all energy drains from it. A well-plotted novel ends shortly after the climax. The author includes a brief denouement to wind things up, and then types "The End." That does not happen here. Instead of feeling satisfied, I was thinking, "Will this never end?" De Rosney's editor had a responsibility to help the author rearrange her material so that would happen.

Then there was the word choice. Sixty years after this heinous roundup, two thousand people gather for a COMMEMORATION of the event. What did the editor let slip by? A CELEBRATION. You have got to be kidding me.

Now, the narrator. She was awful. She had a perky, Minnie Mouse delivery for almost all of the female characters. The men sounded identical except for a potential lover at the end of the book, and he sounded like Goofy--dull, dragged-out delivery, a mouth and nose stuffed with cotton balls, and an artificial, low timbre that was almost funny. She spoke in snippets so lacking in appropriate emotions, I wondered how this woman got the job and kept it. Her voices from one character spilled into another character's dialogue time and again. In all, it was not a well-thought-out reading with distinct voices and emotions we have mostly come to expect from Audible.

To be fair--or, more accurately, to search for something nice to say--she had a credible French accent. But so do many other narrators.

I wish I could encourage everyone to read Sarah's Key. Instead, look up The Vel' d'Hiv Roundup and spend time on the Internet learning about it.

Good historical account

I have read and listened to many accounts of the Jewish persecution during WWII. I enjoyed this story however l did not find the readers voice added to the story. At times l found her voice to be annoying with the change to the varies characters. If you can get past that, the story, while tremendously sad, is another historical account of a time in our history that we can not forget.

A profoundly beautiful, engrossing, riveting book!

Sarah’s Key is as one of the best books I have ever read. The characters were so real... and so relatable. The story struck so many chords in me. And the narrator is a as absolutely brilliant!!! I was so sorry when it ended!! In short, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

An amazing book

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a heartbreaking and fulfilling story.

Who was your favorite character and why?

It is hard to pick between Julia and Sarah.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, I was listening to it in my car but the last half I listened to because I had to finish it, had to know how it ended...just like Julia felt.

awesome story

Fascinating story that transcends time ,countries, & even generations. A must read for lovers of historical fiction