2012 Puddly Awards
 
 
Follow us on TwitterFollow us on FacebookFollow us on Google+Follow us on TumblrSubscribe to RSS

Recently Viewed clear list

Guests | May 2, 2012

Julia Alvarez: IMG Chichiguas

0 comments By Julia Alvarez

I wouldn't have met Piti if it hadn't been for a chichigua. To translate chichigua as a kite does not do justice to these beautiful creations of... Continue »
  1. $16.07 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    A Wedding in Haiti

    Julia Alvarez 9781616201302
spacer
Ships free on qualified orders.
$5.95
Used Trade Paper
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Local Warehouse Literature- A to Z

Sarah's Key

by Tatiana de Rosnay

Sarah's Key Cover

ISBN13: 9780312370848
ISBN10: 0312370849
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $5.95!

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a 10-year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel dHiv roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

Review:

"Tatiana de Rosnay offers a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround the painful episode in that country's history. De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Velodrome 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 Tezac, 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 Vel' 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. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is de Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Review:

"Masterly and compelling, it is not something that readers will quickly forget. Highly recommended." Library Journal (Starred Review)

Review:

"This is the shocking, profoundly moving and morally challenging story....It will haunt you, it will help to complete you...nothing short of miraculous." Augusten Burroughs

Review:

"A powerful novel...Tatiana de Rosnay has captured the insane world of the Holocaust and the efforts of the few good people who stood up against it in this work of fiction more effectively than has been done in many scholarly studies. It is a book that makes us sensitive to how much evil occurred and also to how much willingness to do good also existed in that world." Rabbi Jack Riemer, South Florida Jewish Journal

Review:

"Just when you thought you might have read about every horror of the Holocaust, a book will come along and shine a fierce light upon yet another haunting wrong. Sarah's Key is such a novel. In remarkably unsparing, unsentimental prose...through a lens so personal and intimate, it will make you cry — and remember." Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save Us

Synopsis:

Haunting and suspenseful, life-affirming and beautiful, Sarah's Key offers a compelling portrait of occupied Paris and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this little-known episode in French history.
back to top

About the Author

Tatiana de Rosnay was born in the suburbs of Paris and is of English, French, and Russian descent. She is the author of nine French novels and writes for French Elle, and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine. Tatiana de Rosnay is married and has two children. Sarah's Key is her first novel written in her mother tongue, English.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 33 comments:
R.C., January 19, 2012 (view all comments by R.C.)
I started this book at 3PM Sunday, read until 3AM Monday when I could no longer stay away. At 8 AM when my alarm went off, I called my office to say I would be late, curled back under the covers and finished the book. This is the story of a Jewish family in Paris during the Vichy government's roundups of prisoners to meet the quotas established by the Nazis in the 1940s. Once you learn about about the family, you think you have an idea what is going to happen to them, but then you learn about a secret cupboard and the key that will open it. From that point the story takes on an urgency that compels you to read more. Nothing is predictable about this book, and with each turn you grow closer to the outcome but with each revelation, there is also a new set of circumstances. Once the secret of the cupboard is revealed, then you want to know what happened to Sarah. The story of the Jewish is family is captivating, but there is an added storyline that is just as intriguing. The narrator of the story is an American Expat who is married to a French man and together they have a daughter. As the American writer works on a magazine assignment on the Vichy roundups, she uncovers more than what happened to the French Jews. She learns that the secret connects to her husband's family history and with that discovery come unsettling family issues that cause division and strife. Both of the stories take interesting turns that are very unexpected and the endings are not at all what you are expecting. I have purchased this book as a gift and recommended it to many. Enjoy!
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
R.C., January 19, 2012 (view all comments by R.C.)
I started this book at 3PM Sunday, read until 3AM Monday when I could no longer stay away. At 8 AM when my alarm went off, I called my office to say I would be late, curled back under the covers and finished the book. This is the story of a Jewish family in Paris during the Vichy government's roundups of prisoners to meet the quotas established by the Nazis in the 1940s. Once you learn about about the family, you think you have an idea what is going to happen to them, but then you learn about a secret cupboard and the key that will open it. From that point the story takes on an urgency that compels you to read more. Nothing is predictable about this book, and with each turn you grow closer to the outcome but with each revelation, there is also a new set of circumstances. Once the secret of the cupboard is revealed, then you want to know what happened to Sarah. The story of the Jewish is family is captivating, but there is an added storyline that is just as intriguing. The narrator of the story is an American Expat who is married to a French man and together they have a daughter. As the American, who is a writer, works on a magazine assignment on the Vichy roundups, she uncovers more than what happened to the French Jews. She learns that the secret connects to her husband's family history and with that discovery come unsettling family issues that cause division and strife. Both of the stories take interesting turns that are very unexpected and the endings are not at all what you are expecting. I have purchased this book as a gift and recommended it to many. Enjoy!
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
Mary A, January 19, 2012 (view all comments by Mary A)
While it is a sad story to read, it was well-written and captivates the readers. Many people are not aware of the Nazi presence in Paris during WWII. This book highlights historical events from that period and explores the emotions of people, past and present, touched by this events.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 33 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780312370848
Author:
de Rosnay, Tatiana
Publisher:
St. Martin's Griffin
Author:
de, Tatiana
Author:
De Rosnay, Tatiana
Author:
Rosnay, Tatiana De
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
General
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
Jews
Subject:
World war, 1939-1945
Subject:
France
Subject:
Paris (france)
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2008
Edition Description:
Trade Paper
Publication Date:
20080930
Binding:
Electronic book text in proprietary or open standard format
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
320
Dimensions:
8.23 x 5.54 x 0.9 in
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $5.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Bearing the Body

    Ehud Havazelet 9780374299729
  2. $9.99 Google eBooks add to wish list

    Down River

    John Hart 9781429920230
  3. $5.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Out Stealing Horses

    Per Petterson 9780312427085
  4. $9.99 Google eBooks add to wish list

    The Lovely Bones: A Novel

    Alice Sebold 9780759527737
  5. $6.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    That Old Cape Magic

    Richard Russo 9780375414961
  6. $4.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

    Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows 9780385341004
back to top

Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » Jewish
History and Social Science » World History » Holocaust
Languages » Foreign Languages » Spanish » Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

Sarah's Key Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$5.95 In Stock
Product details 320 pages St. Martin's Griffin - English 9780312370848 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Tatiana de Rosnay offers a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround the painful episode in that country's history. De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Velodrome 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 Tezac, 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 Vel' 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. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is de Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Review" by , "Masterly and compelling, it is not something that readers will quickly forget. Highly recommended."
"Review" by , "This is the shocking, profoundly moving and morally challenging story....It will haunt you, it will help to complete you...nothing short of miraculous."
"Review" by , "A powerful novel...Tatiana de Rosnay has captured the insane world of the Holocaust and the efforts of the few good people who stood up against it in this work of fiction more effectively than has been done in many scholarly studies. It is a book that makes us sensitive to how much evil occurred and also to how much willingness to do good also existed in that world."
"Review" by , "Just when you thought you might have read about every horror of the Holocaust, a book will come along and shine a fierce light upon yet another haunting wrong. Sarah's Key is such a novel. In remarkably unsparing, unsentimental prose...through a lens so personal and intimate, it will make you cry — and remember."
"Synopsis" by , Haunting and suspenseful, life-affirming and beautiful, Sarah's Key offers a compelling portrait of occupied Paris and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this little-known episode in French history.
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...



Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.