Check out our Most Anticipated Books for 2025

What readers think of Sarah's Key, plus links to write your own review.

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Sarah's Key

by Tatiana de Rosnay
  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • First Published:
  • Jun 12, 2007, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Sep 2008, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 2 of 3
There are currently 20 reader reviews for Sarah's Key
Order Reviews by:

Write your own review!

Pebblez

Sarah's Story
This book was the most touching book I have read. The whole concept of it was amazing. Anyone who has a choice to read this or Twilight please read Sarah's Key. I am 13 and I loved this book but I couldn't help but cry at most of the parts. This book is perfect for all ages and I recommend this for everyone. Everyone should hear Sarah's story. We should learn more about our past even if it is embarrassing to some. May Sarah Starzynski live forever!
Gail Lowe

Burned the midnight oil
As an author, I'm always on the hunt for page-turners that I can sink my teeth into. Sarah's Key certainly qualifies. When I went to Paris in 1998, I knew that Hitler's men army had marched down the Champs Elysees but had no idea that a roundup of Jews had occurred. I loved reading the different perspectives of both Julia and Sarah -- each of their stories was riveting in different ways -- but what kept coming back to me again and again was one unanswered question: why did Julia's parents allow their 4-year-old son to be left behind? Gail Lowe, Author of Former Things
Rebel

Sarah's Key
This book was amazing, once I started reading I couldn't put the book down, and since being a high school senior, time is rarely there and I was so surprised that it kept my attention. It's an outstanding book.
Luvagoodbook

A Definite Pageturner !
This book totally captivated me; I am going to recommend it to my book club. I thought the writing compelling, mesmerizing, and rich. It had all the elements of a great book...character development, suspense, intriguing plot lines, and even educational ! The Paris roundup of Jews completed by the French Gendarmes but initiated by the Nazis is not only not in American textbooks, it isn't in French students' books either.
It wasn't until 1995 that the President of France "apologized" for his country's participation in this ghastly act. The last great book I read was "The Help" so that gives you a clue as to my literary taste. :)
Rachele

it was great until the ending
I loved this book! I read it over a two day period. But, the ending left me disappointed. I know the main character was on a journey and this journey led to the discovery of her failing marriage. She realized that it was time for her to move on. What was the significance of her final meeting with Sarah's son? Am I missing something?
MV

Great Story
Sarah’s Key, written by Tatiana De Rosnay, is my favourite book because it ties together the past and the present in an unique way. It is about a young Jewish girl named Sarah, who lives in Paris during World War Two. Her family is forced out of their home and rounded up by the French police. They are held in a velodrome until they are to be transported to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. The story fast forwards to sixty years later, following an American journalist, Julia, who lives in Paris and is writing a magazine article on the roundup that affected Sarah’s life. Julia discovers withheld family secrets, that lead her straight to Sarah. What she finds out both shocks her, and changes her life in an extraordinary way.

This book combines history with suspense in a way that hooks its reader. As the story unfolds, more secrets are revealed about Sarah’s life.This book will keep you intrigued until the end. De Rosnay wrote the book in a way that is easy to follow, even though it switches from past to present frequently. Her dialogue, characters, and plot, in general, are delivered with honesty and realism. She makes you feel like the fictional events in the book truly did occur. The roundup of the Parisian Jews, otherwise known as the Vel D’hiver, is the only non-fictional event that occurs in the book.

Sarah’s Key is a tearjerker, and that is what I think makes it a good book. The tragic events that Sarah experiences are so realistic and heartbreaking. Anyone reading this book has a good chance of displaying some sort of emotion, whether it be anger, horror, and/or sadness. It has left an impact on me, and I am sure it will affect anyone else who has read this book. Sarah’s key will both educate you about the Holocaust, and entertain you with its emotionally suspenseful plotline.

It would be wrong for me to say that the book, in its entirety, was perfect. If I could change some parts of the book, it would be to include more details about the past, and less about the present. I would like to get to know Sarah’s character a bit better, and a lot less about Julia. Sarah’s story is the main reason this book is such a success. Julia’s story is not very eventful, and the author seems to think the reader will feel some kind sympathy towards her, or be able to relate to her. Her ‘tragic’ life that consists of a disintegrating marriage, miscarriage and homesickness, can’t even compare to the horrors that Sarah faces. Julia also uses Sarah’s story as an escape, or distraction, from her own life. This is a good book to read and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Holocaust, Paris, or just a tragic novel to make you cry.
Doris

Sarah's Key Book Review
Sarah’s Key is written about Tatiana de Rosnay. It takes place in Paris, France and deals with the Holocaustand the Vel d’hiv round up in 1942 where the french police captured hundreds of Jews and took them to their deaths.

This was a heart-wrenching story about a dark period in history. It contains suspense but also heartbreak and pain. I recommend this book and I’m sure anyone in there right mind will fall completely in love with it.
Care

Very sad but a must to read
I found this book so terribly sad, it brought tears. I wasn't going to finish it but I am glad I did. Everything should read this so they know what happened to the Jews during Hitler's reign. He was so evil, is surely in Hell. The French were ordered by Hitler to do this. Saddest book I ever read but worth it, couldn't put it down. Maybe the film will be a bit different. This is done all the time, film not quite the same as the book. Not sure I would watch it!!
  • Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Book of George
    The Book of George
    by Kate Greathead
    The premise of The Book of George, the witty, highly entertaining new novel from Kate Greathead, is ...
  • Book Jacket: The Sequel
    The Sequel
    by Jean Hanff Korelitz
    In Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Sequel, Anna Williams-Bonner, the wife of recently deceased author ...
  • Book Jacket: My Good Bright Wolf
    My Good Bright Wolf
    by Sarah Moss
    Sarah Moss has been afflicted with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa since her pre-teen years but...
  • Book Jacket
    Canoes
    by Maylis De Kerangal
    The short stories in Maylis de Kerangal's new collection, Canoes, translated from the French by ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

X M T S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.