Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

World War II is not something I really know a lot about.  I am sure I took notes on it in high school and I have watched the Hollywood versions of several accounts.  I have read several books, mostly fiction set in that time period.  In college, I read Sky by Hanneke Ippisch for a children's literature class and at the time she was living in Missoula and she came and talked to our class.  But other than that, my knowledge sadly is pretty much limited to whatever you might find in high school text book. I think because of my self-proclaimed lack of knowledge, I am drawn to historical fiction books set during World War II. 

Sarah's Key goes back and forth (in a rather choppy way at times) between two characters in two different time periods.  There is a young Jewish girl in 1942 that is being rounded up with her family, minus her brother that locks himself in a cupboard with a promise from his sister that she will come back and get him and what I am going to declare a middle-aged, whiny, slightly unbalanced woman in 2002 living in France.  The author, in a fairly predictable way, brings the story of the two characters together. 

Frankly, I could have done without the second character...as you might have guessed in my above description. I would have much rather heard the story of the young girl entirely through her eyes.  I was most moved in the story by her character.  There were times I had to put the book down and walk away because my heart ached for some of her experiences.  I won't spoil the ending in case it is on anyone's to-read list, I will just say that you might want to keep a tissue or two handy if you decide to read this book.

There are a lot of secrets in this book among many of the characters.  In most cases, the secrets were kept as a way to protect others but it that was rarely the outcome.  When I was reading, I often thought about how things could have been different if they had all the knowledge they could have had.  It seemed that even those keeping secrets said they were protecting those around them, it seemed more, looking from the outside, that it was just as much a result of protecting the secret keeper.  Almost a selfish selfless act, if there could be such a thing.