French bestseller Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay has been acquired by Heather Barrett at John Murray at auction. Barrett bought British Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from Christina Harcar at St Martin's Press for "a respectable five-figure sum", and will publish in February 2008 as a B-format paperback original.

The novel, de Rosnay's first in English, focuses on the Vel' d'Hiv'—the day in 1942, when French police rounded up thousands of Jews to send them to concentration camps. It is the story of two families—Sarah, a 10-year-old Jewish girl in Paris in 1942, and Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in 2002, who is asked to write about the 60th anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv'.

De Rosnay was the Paris editor for Vanity Fair, writes for French Elle, and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine.



John Murray is one of Britain’s most distinguished literary publishers. From its foundation in 1768, the firm has published a dazzling roster of authors, including Byron, Darwin and Jane Austen, and now publishes a small and highly focused list specialising in travel, history, biography and memoirs, current affairs and fiction, publishing in both hardback and paperback.

Sarah’s Key


Tatiana de Rosnay. St. Martin’s Press (June 2007)

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. 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.
Publisher's Weeky, May 28 2007 




*de Rosnay, Tatiana. Sarah's Key. St. Martin's. Jul. 2007. c.288p. ISBN 978-0-312-37083-1. $24.95. F Pivotal to this novel is the key in ten-year-old Sarah's pocket. It opens the cupboard in which she has hidden her younger brother from the French police, who are rounding up Jews in Paris . It is July 16, 1942, and Sarah, along with her parents and hundreds more people, are brought to the stadium Vélodrome d'Hiver, where they spend several days without food or water before being sent to French camps en route to Auschwitz. Arriving at the camp Beaune-la-Rolande, Sarah is separated from her parents and manages to escape. Nearby farmers not only protect but eventually adopt her. In alternating chapters, we read of American-born journalist Julia Jarmond, who's working on a magazine story about the "Vel'd'Hiv" roundup on its 60th anniversary. Because the grandparents of Julia's husband moved into the apartment once owned by Sarah's family, we learn what Sarah discovers when she finally returns ten years later with the key-knowledge so traumatic that it changes Julia's life forever. This debut by French-born de Rosnay has been translated into 15 languages and will surely be an international best seller. Masterly and compelling, it is not something that readers will quickly forget. Highly recommended.-Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH 

Library Journal May 2007

Kristin Scott Thomas will play American journalist Julia Jarmond in the film adaptation of Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (Saint Martin's Press) The movie will be shot during summer 2009 and autumn 2009 by Gilles Paquet-Brenner of Hugo Films.

Kristin Scott Thomas jouera le rôle de Julia Jarmond, la journaliste américaine du roman de Tatiana de Rosnay, Elle s'appelait Sarah (Editions Héloise d'Ormesson). Film réalisé par Gilles Paquet Brenner, scénario écrit par Serge Joncour et produit par Hugo Films. Le film sera tourné cet été et en automne 2010. 

  Gilles Paquet-Brenner

La vente des droits cinéma à Stéphane Marsil pour le compte des sociétés Hugo Films et Expériences films vient compléter l'extraordinaire histoire du roman de Tatiana de Rosnay, qui n'a pas fini de faire parler de lui. L'adaptation sera écrite par Serge Joncour et le film réalisé par Gilles Paquet-Brenner (photo). Hugo Films a produit, entre autres, Les Jolies Choses (adapté du roman de Virginie Despentes) en 2000, Gomez et Tavares en 2002, et U.V. (adapté du roman de Serge Joncour avec Jacques Dutronc et Laura Smet, mai 2007) tous  réalisés par Gilles Paquet-Brenner.

Héloïse d'Ormesson et Gilles Cohen-Solal ont eu le manuscrit de Sarah's Key entre leurs mains en decembre 2005. Ils y ont cru.  Puis les choses se sont passées très vite, et en quelques mois, les droits de ce roman ont été vendus à 15 pays ainsi qu'à France Loisirs et le Livre de Poche.

Ils ont fondé leur maison d'édition en mars 2005.

Héloïse d'Ormesson and Gilles Cohen-Solal first read Sarah's Key in December 2005 and were enthusiastic from the start. Then, things happened very fast, and they sold the book to 15 countries and to book clubs such as France Loisirs and le Livre de Poche.

They founded their publishing house in March 2005.