Sarah’s Key came into my hands by mere chance. Seeing how highly praised it has been since its publication in 2007, I was really excited to read it. But my excitement did not last long.

The book tells two storylines set in France: one of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist who lives with her French husband and daughter in Paris in 2002, and one of 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski, a Jewish girl who was deported from Paris with her family in 1942. Julia is assigned to write about The Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup, a mass arrest of Jews in Paris by French police that Sarah lived through. When the police came to arrest the Starzynski family, Sarah locked her little brother in their secret place to hide him and promised she will return for him later. As Julia starts to piece together information about the roundup, she stumbles upon secrets her own family has kept sealed for decades.

Tatiana de Rosnay deserves praise for exposing and popularizing the little-known historical event during which over 13,000 people—out of them 4,000 children–were deported from Paris. The author created a plot that catches readers’ attention just from the short summarized blurb.

De Rosnay unfortunately did not deliver the same catching writing in the expanded version. She overloads her readers with unnecessary characters, sentences, descriptions and thoughts in an attempt to create a sense of realism. Unsuccessfully. Her metaphors comparing her main character’s gap in marriage to the Berlin Wall are distasteful. Her description of situations where she delivers conclusions rather than describing the situation to her readers is just bad writing. He kicked her brutally. Show, don’t tell! It’s one of the first rules of writing.

The main character Julia is surrounded by contradictions. The relationship with her father in law takes a complete turn during a single moment. Her marriage that is difficult to see or understand as possibly ever loving somehow gets resolved rather quickly. Her 11-year-old daughter pours out adult wisdom way beyond her age.

Perhaps it’s the shocking, horrifying twist screaming from the book’s summary. Perhaps it’s the unimaginable. Perhaps it’s our inquisitive minds hungry to know more about the Holocaust that draw so many to this book. In terms of historical context, de Rosnay certainly left me more knowledgable and curious about the participation of France in the Jewish genocide. In terms of storytelling she left me emotionless and unsatisfied.

The acclaim Sarah’s Key has received on GoodReads while some absolutely brilliant books have felt into oblivion is hardly justifiable in my eyes. The topic of the book is utterly and non-negotiably important. The writing could use another round of editing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️