Sarah's Key

The story is set in Paris and has two interweaving stories revolving around the French roundup of Jews in World War II. One is told from the point of view of a 10 year old Jewish girl Sarah. She is awoken one morning by French police and taken with her parents. Thinking she will be back in a few hours, she locks her four year old brother in a closet. She is taken to an internment camp in a sports arena for several days and then to a work camp and the reader wonders if she will be able to escape and what will become of her brother. You can probably imagine the awful gut-wrenching places her story goes. The other story is set in the present and is narrated by a (two dimensional) American woman, Julia, who lives in Paris in an unhappy marriage. She is writing a newspaper article on the events detailed above and becomes (oddly) obsessed with Sarah's story. Unfortuneatly, about halfway through the novel, the author reveals the brother's fate and fades Sarah away. Julia is a less engaging narrator and the second half of the novel felt a little bit like a letdown. Although the plot at some points really makes no sense, it was a page turner. I had a snow day and knocked it out in 24 hours. I was definitely ignorant of the specific events that took place in France. A major theme of the novel is remembering horrific events, not simply sweeping away past history. It's a compelling story, even if the writing is a little weak.