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I loved the premise of this story - a young girl hides her 4 year old brother in a locked cupboard when the French police come in the middle of the night to round up Jews living in Paris. In the current time, a journalist doing a piece on this infamous round-up finds she will soon be living in this apartment - and vows to find out what happened to the family.
I read this book while on a vacation in France. I had never heard about the Vel d'Hiver round-up or any of the events described in the book, but I had visited the Memorial to the Shoah and the new Jewish museum during this trip, and also saw the many plaques around Paris acknowledging the country's actions during World War II. Having been to Paris 20 years ago when none of these acknowledgements were present, I was struck by the way the country has finally acknowledged what happened.
I therefore ...more
I therefore ...more
I loved this book. I read it in less than 48 hours.
I had never heard of Vel' d'Hiv, the roundup and deportation of Jews by the French police in July '42. The 4,051 children, 5,802 women and 3,031 men were arrested, interned in terrible conditions, separated from spouses, and parents; eventually being sent to Auschwitz.
The novel was divided into 2 narratives, one from 1942 and one from 2002. I found the past narrative about the struggle of one victim, her family and how the community handled this ...more
I had never heard of Vel' d'Hiv, the roundup and deportation of Jews by the French police in July '42. The 4,051 children, 5,802 women and 3,031 men were arrested, interned in terrible conditions, separated from spouses, and parents; eventually being sent to Auschwitz.
The novel was divided into 2 narratives, one from 1942 and one from 2002. I found the past narrative about the struggle of one victim, her family and how the community handled this ...more
i found sarah's key to be a painful book. i had never heard about the French police round up of the country's Jews and the Vel' d'Hiv'. i couldn't stop thinking about the boy left in the cupboard, absolutely could NOT wrap my mind around the implications of that, or how the characters in the book could get past it either. (and in fact, sarah did not). while reading about the other main character's (julia) travails helped cut some of that anxiety, i found her storyline to be contrived, esp. her d
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Julia is an American woman living in France in 2002. Sarah is a 10 year old Jewish girl living in France in 1942. At first glance the two have nothing in common, but there's a secret that threatens to tear both apart.
This was a quick and fascinating read as I was unfamiliar with the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup. The short chapters alternate between Julia and Sarah, and while both stories are interesting it is Sarah's story that I couldn't tear myself from. ...more
This was a quick and fascinating read as I was unfamiliar with the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup. The short chapters alternate between Julia and Sarah, and while both stories are interesting it is Sarah's story that I couldn't tear myself from. ...more
Excellent book! This has two intertwining stories, both takes place in Paris. Sarah's story takes place in July 1942. Sarah is a ten year-old girl, and is arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv roundup of French Jews. To save her younger brother from arrest, she locks him in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Julia's story takes place in 2002: On the Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary. Julia is a journalist who is writing
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I really enjoyed this book. I always like reading about WWII and this book talked about another part of the war that you rarely hear about - the French people shipping the French Jews off to the concentration camps. The story the author uses to talk about this subject is very sad and heart-wrenching. The side story that takes places in modern times isn't as relevant, and I'm not sure if the book needed it, but it wasn't bad, either.
On a side note, I've always thought about moving to Paris, so it ...more
On a side note, I've always thought about moving to Paris, so it ...more
Good story about a little known event in French history and its impact on the lives of several fictional families. Would be a good book club read.
Jan 27, 2009
Robin
rated it
liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
2009-list,
abc-bookclub-list
This is the book that I won 12 copies of from ReadingGroupGuides.com so we decided to read it for our February meeting. It's going pretty quickly for me so far. I read for about an hour in the airport in Nashville on Sunday.
2/10/09 update: Finished reading this last night. This book started out very strong and ended weakly, in my opinion. It was captivating and dramatic to hear Sarah's story but when we got immersed in Julia's story, I was not as interested. But what I liked about reading this i ...more
2/10/09 update: Finished reading this last night. This book started out very strong and ended weakly, in my opinion. It was captivating and dramatic to hear Sarah's story but when we got immersed in Julia's story, I was not as interested. But what I liked about reading this i ...more
A story that will stay with you long after it is done. I am sad to admit I had never hear of this "roundup" in France. I liked the author's use of 2 narrator's of the story. Because of her short chapters, you were able to quickly flip back and forth between characters without losing track of what was going on. The shorter chapters also made it easy to move through the story quickly, especially since I wanted to know what was going to happen next. If you like historical fiction related to real ev
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I thought this book was so tragically beautiful. I fell in love with little Sarah and her story brought me to tears. I had a harder time falling in love with Julia and when their stories merged, it got a little slow for me. But the ending, although exactly what I expected, brought everything together in a way that left me crying and satisfied.
Loved it. This book came highly recommended by mom, and I was not disappointed. I was immediately drawn in to the story and could not put it down. I loved the short sections that alternated between the two main characters...it made it near impossible to put down. A fantastic read!
Jul 26, 2011
Ellen
rated it
it was amazing
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review of another edition
Shelves:
book-group-selection
Re-reading for book discussion. Even sadder the second time through.
Jun 03, 2009
Julie
marked it as to-read
Jul 07, 2010
Deborah
marked it as to-read
