First published 2007
Paris, July 1942. Ten-year-old Sarah hears the French police pounding on doors throughout her neighborhood in the middle of the night. When they reach her family's apartment, she makes a split-second decision that will haunt her forever. She locks her younger brother in their bedroom cupboard, their secret hiding place, and whispers a promise to return for him soon. The police drag Sarah and her parents away with thousands of other French families. Sixty years later, American journalist Julia Jarmond begins investigating this wartime roundup for a magazine article. Her research leads her down an unexpected path when she discovers connections between her own life and Sarah's story. Julia uncovers a web of family secrets that forces her to confront not only the past but also difficult questions about her marriage and her future. Two women separated by decades find their lives intertwined by one night of terror and one desperate act of protection.
Genres: historical-fiction, world-war-ii, journalism, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-timeline, found-family
Setting: Paris, France
Period: 1942, 2002
306 pages · Paperback · St. Martin's Griffin
Content warnings: child-death