Sarah's Key

Sarah’s Key

Sarah’s Key

Tatiana de Rosnay

St. Martin’s Press
New York

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

SARAH’S KEY. Copyright © 2007 by Tatiana de Rosnay. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

www.stmartins.com

Nota bene: Pages 184 and 185 contain excerpts of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s speech during the 60th commemoration of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, on July 21, 2002.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rosnay, Tatiana de, 1961–

Sarah’s key / Tatiana de Rosnay.—1st ed.

         p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37083-1

ISBN-10: 0-312-37083-0

1. Jews—France—Fiction. 2. World War, 1939–1945—France—Anniversaries, etc.—Fiction. 3. Americans—France—Fiction. 4. Women authors—Fiction. 5. Family secrets—Fiction. 6. France—History—German occupation, 1940–1945—Fiction. 7. Paris (France)—Fiction.

PR9105.9.R66 S27 2007

823'.914—dc22

2006034536

First Edition: June 2007

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To Stella, my mother

To my beautiful, rebellious Charlotte

In memory of Natacha, my grandmother
(1914–2005)

Author’s Note

The characters in this novel are entirely fictitious. But several of the events described are not, especially those that occurred in Occupied France during summer of 1942, and in particular the great Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup, which took place on July 16, 1942, in the heart of Paris.

This is not a historical work and has no intention of being one. It is my tribute to the children of the Vel’ d’Hiv’. The children who never came back. And the ones who survived to tell.

My God! What is this country doing to me? Because it has rejected me, let us consider it coldly, let us watch it lose its honor and its life.

—IRÈNE NÉMIROVSKY,
Suite Française
(1942)

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

—WILLIAM BLAKE,
Songs of Experience