This past week, I read three novels that took place in #France. My goal throughout this project has been to read one per week, but some countries are just so rich with literature, that choosing just one feels unnecessarily restrictive.
The first novel I read was Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. It takes place in Paris, both during 2002, what I would still consider "modern times" (Haha - I'm showing my age, I think!) as well as frequently flashes back to another story, 60 years earlier in 1942.
Early on, we are introduced to Julia, an American living in Paris who is married and raising her daughter there. As an American currently living in Berlin, with a similar family constellation, I related a bit to Julia. The premise of her story is that she is a journalist, and that she and her French architect husband are about to renovate and move into his grandmother's old Parisian apartment. At about the same time, she is tasked at work with researching a story about the seldom talked about 'Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup' as the 60th anniversary of this horrific mass arrest of Jewish families by the French police approaches.
The juxtaposition of these two elements of Julia's life begin to converge when she finds herself wondering when and how it was that her husband's grandmother came to move into her apartment in the early 1940s. Her questions take her into an aspect of French history she previously did not understand; as well as into questions about her husband's family that no one seems to want to answer.
The flashbacks to the 1940s give us a first hand account of Jewish family life in Paris in the early 1940s, and the horror that was the 'Vel d'Hiv' Roundup, as well as where it ultimately led for so many.
Because I highly recommend this book, I am choosing to omit a couple of important story lines from this review, as it would spoil the story for you if I explained them and how they intersect.
This was a gripping page turner, and an important read for all of us. I highly recommend it!