SARAH'S KEY - ALYSSA REVIEW

Sarah's Key - - ALYSSA'S REVIEW

Thanks to our Mommy and Me bookclub (still working on that name) my mom and I have been furiously working through our books on either end of the country ... its been fun and I'm usually only a week or two behind the speed reader.

This book was my pick because we share a love for historical fiction books and this one had a good cover (thats right, I am guilty of choosing books by their cover sometimes) my cover is a smidge different than the one shown here - -mine has 2 children running through the Luxembourg Gardens which remind me of my trip to Paris so I grabbed it (its fun reading a book where you can recall places you have seen).

I literally had to walk away from this book a few times because of how disturbing it is, the parts where they talk about the camps and the roundup are emotionally hard to read. The moral issues that you are forced to confront really make you stop and think and I spent a lot of time wondering about the flip side. I wondered about the French police that were ordered to round up the Jews, how they felt and how they dealt with it after, I wondered about the neighbors who watched those few mornings as the families were rounded up by those sworn to protect them. I was glad the author, Tatiana de Rosnay provided us a small glimpse of how the family of one of the characters, Julia, felt about their small part in the roundup - and I thought that was refreshing compared to many books. I think the most fascinating part about this book, and something that sent me straight to Google because of my own ignorance, was France's 'hush hush' about it all - even to this day. It also made me ponder about the things that we as Americans are 'hush hush' about. It reminded me of the book When the Emperor Was Divine by Julia Otsuka about Japanese interment camps during WWII (another great read!)

This book was fascinating, and forced me to some interesting moral areas while reading it, I will admit I liked Sarah's story more than Julia's but I thought Tatiana de Rosnay did a great job of weaving the two together to make a great read for anyone! Just be sure to have some tissues next to you as you read.