Sarah's Key

Paris, July 1942: In the most infamous instance of French cooperation with the Nazis, ten-year-old Sarah and her family are brutally detained during the Vel' d'Hiv roundup. However, Sarah locks her younger brother Michel in the family's apartment's cupboard—their preferred hiding spot—before the cops arrive to take them into custody. With the belief that she would return in a few hours, she keeps the key.

Paris, May 2002: American writer Julia Jarmond is invited to write a piece on this dark day in French history for her American magazine, which is situated in Paris, on the occasion of Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary. After marrying a Frenchman and spending over twenty-five years living in Paris, Julia is stunned by both the quiet that still surrounds the incident and her lack of knowledge about it. She discovers a trail of long-kept family secrets throughout her inquiry that links her to Sarah. Julia is forced to recreate the girl's journey, including the horrific days she spent cooped up at the Vel' d'Hiv' as well as the camps and other places. 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 paints a vivid, nuanced picture of France under occupation and exposes the taboos and denial surrounding this tragic period in French history. She writes about the destiny of her nation with a merciless precision.

(front cover)