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Sarah’s Key
Tatiana de Rosnay
Sarah’s Key
Tatiana de Rosnay
number of voters: 10
percentage of voters who finished the book: 100
highest rating: 7
lowest rating: 5
average rating: 6.4
average star rating: 2.75 stars
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Imagine you’ve received a poorly wrapped gift. You are pleased, of course; everyone appreciates a present. But you notice that it isn’t exactly a pretty gift. The ribbon hangs loosely. The wrapping is messy. The paper is so thin you can see through it to the recycled cereal box underneath. You don’t mean to seem ungrateful, but it is obvious that whoever wrapped this gift either did not know what they were doing or did not take care to wrap it properly.
So it is with Sarah’s Key, a historical novel based on a little known event—the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup—that occurred in France during the Vichy government of World War II. The novel follows one fictional young girl through the historically true story, in which thirteen thousand French citizens of Jewish descent were forced out of their homes by the French police, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver (an indoor bicycle racetrack) and Drancy internment camp, then eventually transported to Auschwitz, where they were killed.
Sarah’s story is compelling and heartbreaking, and in telling it, author Tatiana de Rosnay successfully sheds light on what has heretofore been a hushed aspect of French history and the French government’s complicity in it.
Where de Rosnay fails is in the modern story interwoven with Sarah’s. Sarah’s story is uncovered by Julia, a journalist who is assigned a story about the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. Unlike Sarah, Julia is mostly uninteresting and slightly annoying. The novel bogs down when it follows Julia’s story; it’s weakest moments come when Julia is at center stage, leaving the reader hoping Sarah’s voice will return soon.
And so Sarah’s Key is a gift of historical fiction in a less than satisfactory wrapping. The modern setting is an unattractive ribbon. The writing is uninspiring. The plot is so thin in places that you can see through to the recycled clichés underneath. It seems that the writer either didn't know what she was doing or did not take care to write it properly.
Yet a gift poorly wrapped is still a gift. The book’s redeeming quality is it’s history, and for that reason alone, it is a gift we recommend accepting.
