Sarah's Key

Paris, July 1942: Sarah Starszynski is ten years old. Together with her parents and younger brother, she lives in the Marais district. Her mother sews a yellow star onto her coat—it means a curse and death. At night, the police come for them. In panic, Sarah locks her younger brother in a wall cupboard, promising to return soon.

Paris, May 2002: Julia Jarmond, an American journalist married to a Frenchman, is tasked with writing about yet another anniversary of the roundup of Jews that the Nazis gathered at the Vel d’Hiv stadium. And then her path crosses with Sarah’s story—a girl who kept a mysterious key until the very end of her life—and this will forever change Julia’s life. Where will this young woman’s long memory lead her—she who has accidentally turned over the dark pages of Nazi occupation?