Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. This book is composed of two interwoven threads: Sarah’s story in 1942 and Julia’s quest in 2002. What are the strengths and drawbacks of this narrative form? Which ‘voice’ did you prefer and why?
  2. What different feelings does Sarah experience throughout the trauma of the round-up and its aftermath? How do you think you would have reacted as a ten-year old child?
  3. How does Julia Jarmond consider France and the French? Do you agree with her?
  4. How would you characterise Julia and Bertrand's marriage and how does Julia's character evolve over the course of the novel?
  5. How does Julia’s daughter Zoë help and support her mother? How does she echo the other little girl in the story, Sarah?
  6. This novel is built around several family secrets. What are these secrets? Was Julia right to go so far? Is it sometimes better not to know?
  7. Julia discovers disturbing events concerning French collaboration with the Nazis during the war. Did you learn of any historical events you previously did not know about? Which ones struck you the most?
  8. What do you imagine happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Julia’s life will be like now? What has she learnt?
  9. Many readers were moved to tears by certain passages in this book. Discuss whether this was your case, or not, and which were the passages that moved you and why.
  10. The rue de Saintonge apartment is a key element to this story, bringing past and present together through a secret tragedy. Discuss how you would feel living in such a place. Do you think walls remember?

Current Reading Group Titles

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  2. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  3. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  4. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  5. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  6. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  7. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  8. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  9. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  10. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  11. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  12. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  13. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  14. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  15. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  16. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  17. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  18. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  19. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  20. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  21. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  22. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  23. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  24. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  25. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  26. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  27. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  28. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  29. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  30. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  31. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  32. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  33. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  34. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  35. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  36. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  37. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  38. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell