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