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May 5, 2010

...sarah's key...

I read a great book this week. It's one of those that stays with you throughout the day.
It's a little hard to explain, so here's the description from amazon.com:

De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome 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 Tézac, 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 Vél' 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.

I can't stop thinking about it. The stories from the Holocaust are so haunting. It's amazing what people went through.
There are some very difficult parts to read in this book - especially since you know that those things really happened to people. The story is amazing though - and trust me, you'll be hooked. Hope you have some free time because one you start, you won't be able to put it down!

2 comments:

Jessica said...

Thanks for the advice. I am looking for a good one!!

Scott and Kelli said...

I'm coming home in July for a whole week, if you're not busy we should get together and quilt!