Sarah's Key readers from the USA and Canada, as well as Germany and England, are eager for book-club and reading group questions and end up on this blog hoping to find some
!
These were published in the September 2008 Saint Martin's Press paperback as well as in the August 2008 publication of Sarahs Schlüssel (Berlin Verlag).
Book-club questions are also available on the Hachette Livre Australia website .
http://www.hha.com.au/readinggroups/SarahsKey.html
Large print editions of Sarah's Key are available at Thorndike Press (in
English) and Libra Diffusio (in French).
Author photo copyright Matsas/Opale Agency
Reading group questions for Sarah's Key are here :
http://www.readinggroupgold.com/product/product.aspx?isbn=0312370849#author
Reading Group Guide Questions Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
1. What did you know about France’s role in World War II—and the Vél d’Hiv round-up in particular—before reading Sarah’s Key? How did this book
teach you about, or change your impression of, this important chapter in French history?
2. Sarah’s Key is composed of two interweaving story lines: Sarah’s, in the past, and Julia’s quest in the present day. Discuss the structure and prose-style of each narrative. Did you enjoy the
alternating stories and time-frames? What are the strengths or drawbacks of this format?
3. Per above: Which “voice” did you prefer: Sarah’s or Julia’s? Why? Is one more or less authentic than the other? If you could meet either of the two characters, which one would you choose?
4. How does the apartment on la rue de Saintonge unite the past and present action—and all the characters—in Sarah’s Key? In what ways is the apartment a character all its own in?
5. What are the major themes of Sarah’s Key?
6. de Rosnay’s novel is built around several “key” secrets which Julia will unearth. Discuss the element of mystery in these pages. What types of narrative devices did the author use to keep the
keep the reader guessing?
7. Were you surprised by what you learned about Sarah’s history? Take a moment to discuss your individual expectations in reading Sarah’s Key. You may wish to ask the group for a show of hands.
Who was satisfied by the end of the book? Who still wants to know—or read—more?
8. How do you imagine what happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Julia’s life will be like now that she knows the truth about Sarah? What truths do you think she’ll learn about
her self?
9. Among modern Jews, there is a familiar mantra about the Holocaust; they are taught, from a very young age, that they must “remember and never forget” (as the inscription on the Rafle du Vél
d’Hiv) Discuss the events of Sarah’s Key in this context. Who are the characters doing the remembering? Who are the ones who choose to forget?
10. What does it take for a novelist to bring a “real” historical event to life? To what extent do you think de Rosnay took artistic liberties with this work?
11. Why do modern readers enjoy novels about the past? How and when can a powerful piece of fiction be a history lesson in itself ?
12. We are taught, as young readers, that every story has a “moral”. Is there a moral to Sarah’s Key? What can we learn about our world—and our selves—from Sarah’s story?
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Tatiana de Rosnay published the story of France’s role in the Holocaust in a book called "Sarah’s Key". The novel was released in July 2007 and tells the harrowing story of two families who are
intertwined and haunted by this dark period in France’s history. Tatiana de Rosnay explores the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Jewish round-up and the flood of emotion during this painful event. Tatiana de Rosnay
lives in Paris. She writes for French Elle, and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine. Sarah’s Key is her first novel written in English and has been translated into 15 languages.
What happened at the Velodrome? The Vélodrome d'Hiver (or Winter Velodrome) was an indoor stadium situated on the rue Nélaton, near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Famous cycling races
were held here. The building was generally referred to by its contracted name : "Vel' d'Hiv". In June 1942, the French government of Vichy working under Nazi orders planned to arrest 30,000 foreign
adult Jews with the help of 9,000 French policemen. Arrests started at dawn on July 16th. The round up's code name was ironically poetic: "Operation Spring Breeze". 13,000 Jewish people were
arrested that day (including 4,000 children, most of them born in France). According to all accounts one can read, inside the Vel d'Hiv was sheer hell. People went crazy, committed suicide, died,
women gave birth. Some people, but only very few, were able to escape.
Describe the life of Jewish families in France during 1942? It was certainly not an easy life for Jewish families living in France in 1942. In 1940, the Germans had invaded France
and occupied its northern half, including Paris. The French government passed a set of anti-Jewish laws called the Statut des Juifs. Jews of France were slowly but surely eliminated from civil
service, handcrafts, the press, banking professions, finance, trade, publishing and entertainment. There was a curfew for Jews from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
How does this novel aid our understanding of the Holocaust? I believe my novel sheds a truthful light on what happened in France during those dark years of collaborationism. 70,000
Jews were deported from France. Among them, 11 000 children. For years, the French government declined to apologize for the role of French policemen in the Vel d'Hiv round-up. This has now
thankfully changed. On July 16th 1995, Jacques Chirac, was the first French president to acknowledge the role the French state played in the persecution of Jews.
Source :
http://davidsvoice.org/page.aspx?id=187733&page=4
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A bestseller in Europe, Tatiana de
Rosnay's Sarah's
Key* opens in Paris, July 1942. Thinking she would be home in a few hours, ten year-old Sarah locks her younger brother in their secret hiding place as the police
round up Jews for Stadium Vlodrome d'Hiver, en route to Auschwitz. Sixty years later, American journalist Julia Jarmond is in Paris to
investigate the round-up and stumbles onto a trail of family secrets that link her to Sarah.
Book groups all over the world have posted their discussion questions at the Sarah's
Key blog site to share. The film rights have been sold to French producer Stéphane Marsil. Tatiana de Rosnay writes for French ELLE. Since 1992, she has published eight novels in French. Sarah's Key is the first written in English.
This "shocking, profoundly moving, and morally challenging story" is highly recommended for book groups that have enjoyed Suite Française. For information on this time period, try Vichy France and the Jews.
Source :
http://www.aadl.org/node/10867
Publication de "Sarah's" Key aux USA chez Saint Martin's Griffin
3
“Wonderfully written. Kept me on the edge of my seat every moment. An emotional journey. One of my favorite novels. Up there with the best- If walls
could talk. An outstanding personalization of the horrors of
the holocaust.”
Charlotte Hanebuth
“A beautifully written, poignant novel based on a shameful period in French history. A must read for all lovers of historical fiction.” Barbara Mix
“An incredible story, beautifully written. Could not put it down.” Georgia Kelly
“Totally excellent book. Read it in one day. The book made me aware of the French round up. I would like to know if Julia and William got involved.”
Kathleen McCann
“Wonderfully written page turner. Such an interesting and mysterious story!” Sue Sneary
“Tatiana’s ability to get me into the ‘head’ of her characters is phenomenal. I had such empathy for Julia and Sarah.” Kathleen Voight
“The book is beautifully written – two stories that intersect in a Paris apartment. Sarah’s love of her brother filled her life with guilt, overshadowing her life with
sadness.” Beth Carpenter
“I will remember this story…..I enjoyed the characters and learned something about this period that was not a popular tale.” Barb Toslosky
“Sarah’s Key is the most compelling, gripping novel I’ve read in a long time. Loved everything about it.” Audrey Raclaw
“Wonderfully written one woman’s quest for the truth.” Carol Adams
"Just as gripping as The Diary of Anne Frank and Schindler's List". Ginny Thompson
Thank you Barbara
!
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By Steve Pollack for the Jewish Literay Review
The Vel d'Hiv had been an indoor cycling track located near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Built in the early part of the last century, it was used over the years
for everything from six-day bicycle races to ice hockey, wrestling, boxing, roller-skating, circuses and concerts.
But it was for one event in particular that it will always be remembered: the July 16, 1942 raid in which French police — acting on
instructions from the occupying Germans — began rounding up approximately 13,000 Jews from their homes in Paris and the nearby region. The police sent many of the adults to the concentration camp located in
Drancy, north of Paris. The others, many of them parents with children, were sent to the Vel d'Hiv where they stayed for
six dreadful days. According to some accounts, as many as 7,500 people were held there with no lavatories, no place to sleep, unbearable heat, very little water and only a smattering of food. The
conditions drove some to suicide. Most of those who lived through the nightmare were sent to French concentration camps before making their final destination to Auschwitz.
It is against the backdrop of this terrible event in French history that Tatiana de Rosnay set her terrific new novel, Sarah's Key. (read on
here)
Many thanks to Steve Pollack for this review.
Author photo Philippe Matsas
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---What
first got you interested in writing? I first started writing novels when I was 11 years old, in 1972. I was already a book worm and several books had inspired me : Anne Frank’s diary, “Rebecca” by
Daphne du Maurier and the “Young Visters (sic)” by 9 year old Daisy Ashford. For my mother’s upcoming birthday, I decided to write her a novel and she was most encouraging when she read “A girl
called Carey”, the 80 page, hand-written story of a poor little rich girl in 19th Century London. So from then on, I wrote a book a year for my family. I was already then firmly
convinced I was going to be a writer. But I did not seek publication till 1992.
--Who or what particularly influences your work? In my teens, I was influenced by Zola, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Woolf, James,
Wilde, Poe and Wharton (although I knew I could never equal them !) Nowadays, I read many contemporary writers such as Ian McEwan and Tracy Chevalier, but I try not to be influenced and to
let my own voice “speak”!
---Describe your writing process.
I take notes when I am preparing a novel and while I am writing it. I write early in the morning and late at night. My first readers
are my husband Nicolas and my close friends Laure and Julia, who have more or less read everything I’ve written, even the unpublished stuff ! It takes me a year or two to write a
novel.
---What is the most
surprising thing you have learned as a writer?That you can really reach out and touch people, in every sense of the word. And that they want to thank you for it. A wonderful discovery !
---Which of your
books is your favorite and why? What a tough question ! I’m attached to all my nine novels and to my unpublished ones ! But I’d say Sarah’s Key is the book which has lit up something in my life, something that I’ll never forget.
---What kind of
effect do you hope your books will have? I love it when my readers tell me “they couldn’t put my book down” and had to stay up all night to read it ! I also love it when my readers recommend my books to
their friends and family.
Thank you to Contemporay Authors at http://gale.cengage.com/
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From top to bottom : The Flat Iron Building, where the offices of Saint Martin Press overlook the city, my editor Jennifer Weis, book presentation on Madison Avenue "Maison du Chocolat", Sue and
Holly, "Sarah's Key" in Barnes & Noble shop, and the Café Mozart where the book ends !
De haut en bas : Le Flat Iron, où les bureaux de Saint Martin's Press surplombent la ville, mon editeur américain, Jennifer Weis, présentation du livre à "la Maison du Chocolat" de Madison
Avenue, Holly et Sue, "Sarah's Key" en rayon chez Barnes & Noble,et le Café Mozart où le livre se termine !
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Saint Martin's Press :
Sarah's Key
"An American journalist researches the notorious roundup of Parisian Jews and uncovers her French family's war-era secrets, in
this page-turning, interconnected novel of modern-day Paris and occupied France. Paris. July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother,
Michel, 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, 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 connects 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." To be
published on 12th June 2007 by Saint Martin's Press
“This is a remarkable historical novel, a book which brings to
light a disturbing and deliberately hidden aspect of French behavior towards Jews during World War II. Like Sophie's Choice, it's a book that impresses itself upon one's heart
and soul forever.”
–Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife and The Covenant
“Sarah's Key unlocks the star crossed, heart thumping story of an American journalist in Paris and the 60-year-old secret that could destroy her marriage. This book will
stay on your mind long after it's back on the shelf.”
–Risa Miller, author of Welcome to Heavenly Heights
"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 Public Library, Ohio.
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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
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