Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
Format: Bargain Price
Label: St. Martin's Press
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: June 12, 2007
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: June 12, 2007
Sales Rank: 118802
Studio: St. Martin's Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great read for those who love historical fictions
This is the first book I've read on the French roundup and camps during WWII, so from that perspective the book was compelling. Sarah's character had too much going on that didn't seem necessary or relevant to the story, but that didn't take away from my interest in the story. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
Rating:  - Fascinating story that keeps you riveted.
I did not read this book as much as I devoured it over the course of two days. The back and forth between the two voices of the novel kept me turning the pages long after my bedtime. The story was interesting, and your heart just broke for Sarah and her family.
The book also shines a light on France's government involvement in Nazi Germany's "Final Solution." After finishing the novel I have been compelled to find more historical information on the Rafle du Vel d'Hiv.
Really a great book.
Rating: - Powerful, haunting story
This story is a powerful, well written story than evokes tremendous emotion in the reader. The parallel story lines prevent the reader from putting the book down during the truly horrifying moments. Written in the first person, a writing style that enables the reader to more clearly envision the events, the story is cleverly crafted with just enough detail to allow the reader to empathize with Julia, the voice of the story as she desparately seeks out Sarah's story. This is by far the best book I have read in years.
Rating: - captivating
This novel, intriguing from the very beginning, tells the story of the Vel' D'Hiv' -- one of the largest Nazi roundups of Jews, carried out by French soldiers. It intertwines the story of Sarah, a ten-year-old girl in Paris, 1942, and Julia, a forty-five-year-old American ex-pat living in Paris, 2002. Julia's job takes her to researching the Vel' D'Hiv', and she learns more than she bargained for, including her family's darkest secret. The whole novel has a melancholy tone -- Julia has her fair share of marital and personal problems in addition to the downright depressing experiences of Sarah -- but it is beautifully written and altogether enticing. Sarah's tale is told intertwined with Julia's, deepening simultaneously with Julia's research, and some of the sense of loss and confusion that Sarah feels is echoed in Julia's chapters, in the context of her modern life. Overall, an excellent book, and one that will really make you think.
Rating: - Fascinating & well-written novel with a too-pat conclusion
This is the second of Tatiana de Rosnay's novels that I have read, and like the previous one La Mémoire des murs it revolves around a mystery associated with a Parisian apartment.
In this case, the Marais apartment once occupied by ten-year-old Sarah and her family until they are rounded up in an infamous "rafle" of Parisian Jews in July 1942 is about to become home to American-born Julia Jaramond. The property, which has long been the property of her French husband's family, is now vacant, and will be refurbished. Julia, however, in the process of researching a story about the 60th anniversary of the "Vel d'Hiv" roundup, discovers that some of those deportees - who ended up at Auschwitz - had been the previous occupants. But there is no mention of the fate of their young daughter, Sarah...
Thus begins Julia's quest to discover what happened to Sarah, amidst indifference or hostility from many members of her husband's family - reactions that aren't too dissimilar from those of French society as a whole, which prefers to think of the `rafle' as something orchestrated by the Nazis (although it was carried out entirely by French police). The first half of the book is told in short chapters that alternate between the voice of the young Sarah and that of Julia; eventually, the only voice is that of Julia, as she intensifies her search for Sarah's fate.
Some of de Rosnay's plot twists are predictable, especially toward the end of the book when all the loose ends ... Read More
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