Lately, I have been reading the book Sarah’s key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I finished it quickly because I found it extremely fascinating and exciting.
In the first half of the book, we get to experience the story from the perspective of the young French girl, Sarah. Sarah is a 10 years old Jewish girl who is brutally arrested by the French police in Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, along with her family. Before she is arrested she locks her younger brother in a cabinet in the apartment, thinking they would be back within’ a few hours or so.
Sarah’s side of the story ends when she returns to her apartment and finds her brother dead in the cabinet. A new family has then already taken over their apartment, and has been notifying an odd smell, that they couldn't find out what was, until now.
In the second half of the book we get to continue the story from a half American, half French journalist perspective, who finds her work more interesting than it primarily was supposed to. She finds a lot of information that leads her to Sarah and she arises an obsession with finding out what has happened to this girl. Questions like “Is she still alive?” and “How of a person did she become after Auschwitz?” she asked herself. As her personal life becomes weaker, she gets closer to her goal finding out what had happened with the mysteries girl named Sarah.
The book is mainly about one of the darkest incidents in French history, were millions of Jews were transported to the Auschwitz death camp in 1942.
It is a touching story, well written, with a good structure. I think the first half of the book, with the story from Sarah’s point of view, was the best part. You really manage to develop pictures of how brutal and tragic the actions was around the Jews in 1942, not only in Germany but other countries as well. The fact that many people was not completely knowledgeable of things that had happened in their country at that time, is well emphasized in the book.
It is a touching story, well written, with a good structure. I think the first half of the book, with the story from Sarah’s point of view, was the best part. You really manage to develop pictures of how brutal and tragic the actions was around the Jews in 1942, not only in Germany but other countries as well. The fact that many people was not completely knowledgeable of things that had happened in their country at that time, is well emphasized in the book.
I really enjoyed the ending of the book, even though it didn’t end well for Sarah. I strongly recommend this book, and the movie as well. Both is really great, though I liked the book a little better.
