I found this large-print softcover in this Little Free Library in Milford NH while dropping off some books of my own.

It centers on a dark event in French history - the mass roundup, relocation, and (for the majority) deaths of thousands of French Jews, done by the French police and government - the Vel' d'Hiv roundup of 1942.

The story unfolds in two timelines, one in 1942 as we see one family being uprooted by their own neighbors at the orders of the German occupying forces, and one in modern times as a journalist investigates the Vel' d'Hiv events herself - and finds that her husband's family has a close connection to those events, though only a few of them know about it.

The title refers to the most heartbreaking aspect of the story: Sarah, age 10, tries to protect her 4-year-old brother by locking him in the secret cubbyhole in their apartment, a place they both loved to hide in to play. But she doesn't realize that she and her parents aren't going to be allowed back to the apartment, and as time passes she gets more and more frantic about her brother's fate. She even tries to give the key to someone, but nobody is willing to undertake the task - and, even worse, she tells her parents what she's done, adding to their own grief and fear... She does her best to find a way to get back to the apartment, but is it too late for little Michel?

Modern-day Julia, an American who married a Frenchman years ago and has lived with him and their daughter in France for some time, gets caught up in the horrifying events of 1942, as surprised as I was to discover that such a thing could happen in Paris. Her increasingly-obsessive search for information about the fates of Sarah and her family put her at odds with some members of her husband's family - and an unexpected event in her life puts her at even greater odds with her husband. [I admit I wasn't crazy about the personal-life melodrama added to the already-intense WWII plots; it played out believably enough, I suppose, but I found it more distracting than anything else. Others' mileage may vary.]

We do see what happened to Sarah in the detention camp, and how her family's fate crossed with that of Julia's in-laws. The effects of those events on everyone trickle down through the generations, affecting people into Julia's time and beyond.

I found the book compelling, both for the personal stories (however fictionalized) and for the revelation of the historical events, which deserve to be remembered along with the rest of the events of the Holocaust.

[There's a 2010 film based on the book, and a TV Tropes page about the film.]

I left this book in the Little Free Library on the walking/biking trail on this beautiful day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2019 Mothers Day release challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2019 Movie release challenge. *** . ***