Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay

Another WWII novel dealing with the Holocaust. But this one is quite different from the others I've read in the past year. Although fiction, the story is based on an incident in Paris, 1942. Thousands of Jewish families were arrested. Before they were to be transported to the concentration camps, they were temporarily housed in the Velodrome d'Hiver -a sports facility. The conditions that were described reminded me a lot of what I saw and read about the SuperDome during Katrina. The title character Sarah was 10 years old when this happened. She had been living happily with her 4 year-old brother Michel and her parents. Her father has been hiding in the basement of the building in which they live because the word on the street is that only men are being rounded up. This is the subject of half of the book. The other half is about 40-something Julia. American by birth, Julia has lived in Paris since she was 20. She's married to a Frenchman and they have one precocious 11-year-old daughter. Julia works part-time for an American magazine in Paris. Her editor suggests a story about the Velodrome d'Hiver roundup because the 60th anniversary is approaching. Of course this leads to a connection between Julia and Sarah. It was a fascinating read. I couldn't quit reading it. Highly recommended!!!!!!!!!