I'm still in Europe at this point, reading my way across Belgium and the Netherlands on our way to Amsterdam...
I started the third book, Suite Francaise but never finished it. It was a bit too dry and Sarah’s sister Jessica had far too many other more interesting, trip friendly books for me to borrow, or so I thought.
Sarah’s Key was my next pick. I read this on the bus ride to Amsterdam and cried like a baby at the end, wiping my tears on my scarf, trying not to look like a blubbering idiot on our big yellow tour bus. I should have known it was going to be a tearjerker but that didn’t stop me. Both Sarah and Jessie recommended it to me and who am I to resist the opinions of two seasoned readers?
I have read a lot of Holocaust themed novels in my time, and while some seem to blur together, Sarah's Key definitely stands out. De Rosnay bases her story on the events of the 1942 Paris roundup and deportation of thousands of Jews. 13,152 Jews were held in the Vélodrome d'Hiver for 8 days. There were no bathrooms and the only food and water they had were what the Red Cross managed to bring to them. Those that survived the inhumane conditions in the dome were sent to an internment camp in Drancy until they could be deported to Auschwitz for extermination. Sarah's Key is the fictional story of one of these Jews. It is chilling, horrifying and definitely could have happened.
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