Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
"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."
I thought this was a great book that really sucked me in. I can't count how many times I was crying reading this. There were a few things that I didn't like, one of them being Julia's 'drama.' It just seemed there was too much of it and a lot of it was unnecessary to the book. However, I would still recommend reading this book.
I never learned of the Vel' d'Hiv' in school so this was a real eye-opener. It's ironic in a sense because that is mentioned in the book a lot, how most people haven't even heard of it, let alone French people.
