Sarah's Key (novel): Difference between revisions
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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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===July 1942=== |
===July 1942=== |
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The first plot follows the Starzynski family. On 16 July 1942, French police raided the Starzynski house, arresting ten-year-old Sarah and her parents. Her four-year-old brother, who remains unnamed until towards the end of the novel, is too scared to come and asks Sarah to lock him in a secret closet in the wall in their room. They are taken to [[Velodrome d'Hiver]] and kept there for two days. They are transported to [[Beaune-la-Rolande]] afterwards. Sarah is separated from her parents and they are killed. When the [[SS]] prepares to move the children from the camp |
The first plot follows the Starzynski family. On 16 July 1942, French police raided the Starzynski house, arresting ten-year-old Sarah and her parents. Her four-year-old brother, who remains unnamed until towards the end of the novel, is too scared to come and asks Sarah to lock him in a secret closet in the wall in their room. They are taken to [[Velodrome d'Hiver]] and kept there for two days. They are transported to [[Beaune-la-Rolande]] afterwards. Sarah is separated from her parents and they are killed. When the [[SS]] prepares to move the children from the camp [[gas chambers]], Sarah and a girl named Rachel escape. Sarah desperately wants to go back to [[Paris]] because she wants to save her brother. They are caught as they attempt to crawl under the fence, but they are allowed to escape by a French policeman that Sarah remembered from Paris, after convincing him that Michel has been locked in the hiding place. He even gives the two girls money to aid in their escape. They find refuge with an elderly couple who takes them into their house, but Rachel falls ill with what is probably [[diphteria]] or [[typhus fever]]. The couple, Jules and Geneviève Dufaure, are compelled to call a [[Nazi]] doctor, who reports to the Nazi officials that the elderly couple is hiding Jewish children. The Nazis arrive and search for more children, but without finding Sarah they take Rachel away and she presumably dies. Jules and Geneviève dress Sarah in boys' clothes (her hair had been cut short at Drancy) and help her get to her former home in Paris. She had been keeping the key to the closet in her pocket the whole time. She knocks at the door, screaming her brother's name. A young boy opens the door and Sarah rushes into the house, nearly kicking the door to her former room and quickly opens the closet. She collapses and starts to cry hysterically. The boy's father comes into the room and removes Michel, who had died by then, hidden in the closet waiting for Sarah. |
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===Two years later=== |
===Two years later=== |
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Revision as of 15:58, 24 January 2013
 French cover (2nd edition). | |
| Author | Tatiana de Rosnay |
|---|---|
| Original title | Elle s'appelait Sarah |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Holocaust |
| Publisher | France Loisirs |
Publication date | September 2006[1] |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | 12 June 2007[2] |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 294 (sometimes 293) |
| ISBN | 978-0-7195-2452-3 |
| 16 | |
Sarah's Key (Template:Lang-fr) is a novel by Tatiana de Rosnay, first published in September 2006. Two main parallel plots are followed through the book. The first is that of ten-year-old Sarah Starzynski, a Jewish girl born in Paris, who is arrested with her parents during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Before they go, she locks her four-year-old brother in a cupboard, thinking the family should be back in a few hours. The second plot follows Julia Jarmond, an American journalist living in Paris, who is asked to write an article in honour of the 60th anniversary of the roundup.
Plot
July 1942
The first plot follows the Starzynski family. On 16 July 1942, French police raided the Starzynski house, arresting ten-year-old Sarah and her parents. Her four-year-old brother, who remains unnamed until towards the end of the novel, is too scared to come and asks Sarah to lock him in a secret closet in the wall in their room. They are taken to Velodrome d'Hiver and kept there for two days. They are transported to Beaune-la-Rolande afterwards. Sarah is separated from her parents and they are killed. When the SS prepares to move the children from the camp gas chambers, Sarah and a girl named Rachel escape. Sarah desperately wants to go back to Paris because she wants to save her brother. They are caught as they attempt to crawl under the fence, but they are allowed to escape by a French policeman that Sarah remembered from Paris, after convincing him that Michel has been locked in the hiding place. He even gives the two girls money to aid in their escape. They find refuge with an elderly couple who takes them into their house, but Rachel falls ill with what is probably diphteria or typhus fever. The couple, Jules and Geneviève Dufaure, are compelled to call a Nazi doctor, who reports to the Nazi officials that the elderly couple is hiding Jewish children. The Nazis arrive and search for more children, but without finding Sarah they take Rachel away and she presumably dies. Jules and Geneviève dress Sarah in boys' clothes (her hair had been cut short at Drancy) and help her get to her former home in Paris. She had been keeping the key to the closet in her pocket the whole time. She knocks at the door, screaming her brother's name. A young boy opens the door and Sarah rushes into the house, nearly kicking the door to her former room and quickly opens the closet. She collapses and starts to cry hysterically. The boy's father comes into the room and removes Michel, who had died by then, hidden in the closet waiting for Sarah.
Two years later
The book ends with an epilogue telling the reader that Julia left Bertrand and moved to New York City with Zoë and the baby. She meets up with William, who now wants to find out more about Sarah. When he asks Julia what the baby's name is, she replies 'Sarah'.
Characters
Sarah Starzynski
Sarah Starzynski is one of the two protagonists of the book. 10 years old, she lives in Paris in July 1942, with her parents. When she gets taken to Drancy internment camp, she desperately tries to escape. After she finds her brother's body, she grows up a broken woman and eventually commits suicide (the official story is that a tire blew up, but Julia believes she willingly drove into a tree).
Julia Jarmond
Julia Jarmond is the other protagonist of the book. She was born and raised at 49 Hyslop Road in Brookline, Massachusetts, but always preferred France over America and moved to Paris in her early twenties. She marries Bertrand Tezac and has a daughter, but they are no longer in love when the book starts. She is deeply touched by Sarah's story and names her second daughter Sarah.
Other characters
- Although he does not appear in the book much, Michel Starzynski is an important character, as he is Sarah's motivation to escape. He is not taken to the camp, but dies in the closet where Sarah locked him when the family was taken to Vel' d'Hiv.
- Wladyslaw & Rywka Starzynski are Sarah and Michel's parents who are both transported to Auschwitz for extermination. Mme. Starzynski is deeply marked by the events she witnesses and it seems that she would willingly allow herself to be killed until they separate her from Sarah, when the mother Sarah knew and remembered reemerges. M. Starzynski is willing to fight, but he is sent almost immediately from the French camp on to Auschwitz where he was sent to the gas chambers.
- William Rainsferd is Sarah's only son who lives in Florence. He does not know much about his mother's past and does not want to know much at the beginning.
- Richard Rainsferd is Sarah's husband and William's father.
- Rachel is Sarah’s friend who escapes with her. She dies of what appears to be typhus or diphtheria.
- Zoë Tezac is Julia's older, rebellious daughter. She is 11 years old at the beginning of the book and 13 at the end.
- Bertrand Tezac is Julia's husband who is, as Zoë describes him, "totally rude". He is no longer in love with Julia and gets many lovers.
- Mamé is Bertrand's grandmother and the current owner of Sarah's former house. Her name is not revealed throughout the book, but she is very old and no longer lucid, suffering from Alzheimer's. She resides in a home.
- Éduoard Tezac is Bertrand's father who is present when Sarah finds Michel's body in 1942.
- Richard Tezac is Mamé's husband and Édouard's father who is also present in 1942 and takes Michel's body out of the closet.
- Sarah is Julia’s youngest daughter. Her last name is not revealed. As Julia and Bertrand have separated, her last name may be Jarmond or it may be Tezac.
Awards
- 2007: Gabrielle d'Estrées[3]
- 2008:[3]
- Livre du Poche - Reader's choice
- Prix de lecteurs de Corse
- Cronos prize of literature
- 2009: La Mennais[4]
Film adaptation
In 2010, a movie adaptation was released, starring Kristin Scott Thomas as Julia and Mélusine Mayance as Sarah. It was received pretty well, currently holding a 73% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
References
- ^ Template:Fr icon de Rosnay, Tatiana. "France Loisirs". Sarah's Key. sarahskey.com. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ^ 1-250-00421-7&lr=&hl=en&redir_esc=y "Sarah's Key (1st edition)". Google Books. books.google.com. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ a b Template:Fr icon "Elle s'appelait Sarah - Prix Literaires". Prix Literaires. prix-litteraires.net. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
- ^ Template:Fr icon Bertel, Johanna (June 10, 2009). ""Elle s'appelait Sarah", lauréat du Prix La Mennais 2009". Le Blog du CDI. cdilamennaisguerande.blogspot.com. Retrieved January 29, 2012.