This was a gripping novel that several times I told myself I couldn't finish. Not a very ringing endorsement to start with. However, novels about true events during World War II are rarely uplifting and usually difficult to read. This one, like others of its genre, was well worth finishing.
Set in Paris, France the novel changes time period and perspective, between the 1940's and 2000's, between a young Jewish girl and an American woman living in Paris. It is a tale of heartbreak centered on the round-up of French Jews in July of 1942 at the Vel' d'Hiv and their deportation to nearby internment camps and, eventually, Auschwitz. The Jewish girl at the center of the story and her brother have a hidden cupboard in their room in which he decides to hide on the night the French authorities come to take the family away. Not understanding what is happening, the girl agrees to his plan and pockets the key to his hideaway, believing she will return shortly to free him. What follows is her journey to get back to him and how this journey is interwoven with the life of an American journalist living in Paris, France in the present day.
BOTTOM LINE: Well, I think I kind of started with the bottom line. See sentences 1-4 of this post. :)
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