A horrifying and tragic book.  I had a hard time putting it down.  Sarah and her parents are Jews living in occupied France in 1942.  When they are rounded up by French policemen to be handed over to the Germans, Sarah hides her little brother, promising to return for him.  60 years later, Julia, an American journalist, stumbles onto Sarah’s story.  Desperate to discover Sarah’s fate, Julia dives into her investigation, and finds some old family secrets. 

Sarah’s Key explores a part of the Holocaust with which I was unfamiliar, the round-up of French, Jewish citizens by French policemen at the Vel d’Hiv.  Although the book is at times difficult to read, its message of forgiveness, remembrance and life is a powerful one.

A small French town is consumed by a witch hunt. Nobody is safe from the power-hungry men, who will accuse anyone who stands in their way of witchcraft. I’ve read many stories about the witch trials here in the U.S., but didn’t know that this went on in Europe as well.