By Tatiana de Rosnay
A heart wrenching story told by American woman in Paris, Julia Jarmond, who is investigating Vel' d'Hiv's, a day sixty years ago when French police, collaborating with the Nazis, arrested Jewish citizens to be sent to the death camps. Julia discovers the ordeal of a little Jewish girl, Sarah, who was rounded up with other Jews in 1942. Sarah survived and was saved by the kindness of a French family. For the rest of her life, Sarah was haunted by the fact that she hid her little brother in a closet (just before being marched out of her apartment with her parents), promising him to come back and get him. She never did. As Sarah grew up she could not sustain relationships with those who loved her and did not tell her story to the new people in her life in America. The novel also focuses on Julia, and her family relations. Julia is brave while seeking the hidden truth about France's ugly past, family secrets, and searching for those who knew Sarah. Yet, the image of a little boy waiting in a dark closet for his sister, grasps one’s heart throughout the reading, leaving Julias' life on the sideline.
A heart wrenching story told by American woman in Paris, Julia Jarmond, who is investigating Vel' d'Hiv's, a day sixty years ago when French police, collaborating with the Nazis, arrested Jewish citizens to be sent to the death camps. Julia discovers the ordeal of a little Jewish girl, Sarah, who was rounded up with other Jews in 1942. Sarah survived and was saved by the kindness of a French family. For the rest of her life, Sarah was haunted by the fact that she hid her little brother in a closet (just before being marched out of her apartment with her parents), promising him to come back and get him. She never did. As Sarah grew up she could not sustain relationships with those who loved her and did not tell her story to the new people in her life in America. The novel also focuses on Julia, and her family relations. Julia is brave while seeking the hidden truth about France's ugly past, family secrets, and searching for those who knew Sarah. Yet, the image of a little boy waiting in a dark closet for his sister, grasps one’s heart throughout the reading, leaving Julias' life on the sideline.
RSS Feed