Sarah's Key - Tatiana de Rosnay

The Caltrain is a bad place to read. There's the crunching of food, crinkling of paper, talking on the cellphone, announcements from the train operator, and the constant whistle of the train as it declares its presence on the tracks. It's rare that I'm able to block out the sounds and invest myself fully in whatever I'm reading. But with this book, I didn't hear a thing. 

I'll do my best not to give away too much plot. The chapters alternate between 10-year old Sarah who lives in Paris in 1942, and Julia, a 45-year old American living in Paris in the present day. Their stories intersect when Julia, who is a journalist, is assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of vel d'hiv (a roundup of the Jews in France before they were deported to concentration camps) and in the process of her research discovers the apartment she is about to move into once belonged to Sarah's family. 

The first half of the book found me with a lump in my throat, on the brink of tears, my heart racing. I was completely engrossed (and simultaneously terrified). 

The second half of the book is exclusively in Julia's voice and much more about her personal problems, which was a nice break for my emotions, but also significantly less moving. The book picks up again towards the end, when after losing her voice at the halfway point, we finally find out what happened to Sarah. The very end on the other hand, is a disappointment. Had the book ended 2 pages earlier, I would have loved it. But the last bit was so Hollywood I felt like it was a sellout. 

If you're going to read this one, and I highly recommend it, stop at the bottom of page 289 at "he grinned" to reflect on the book, probably calm yourself down, and then see if you can guess what's about to happen. Proceed with the next 2 pages, and then feel free to snort in disgust.