I just finished reading
Sarah's Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay, which is the first book for my book club.
From Publisher's Weekly:
De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself.
I know very little about World War II, and this book was an incredibly interesting insight into that time, and the horrific Jewish roundups that occured in France by the French police at the Vel' d'Hiv'. At times it's hard to read, especially Sarah's perspective of what happened in the camps - being torn away from her parents, having her hair shaved off, not eating for days, the abuse by the police and guards. But Sarah's story is intertwined with Julia's, and creates a really interesting book. When I first picked it up, I honestly thought it wouldn't be something that would interest me, but it's so well written, I couldn't put it down.
Bottom line: it's a definite read.
