A touching, twisted, addicting novel, Tatiana de Rosnay breaks new ground on what books about the Holocaust should be about in “Sarah’s Key.”

While the novel is indeed moving and saddening, it is not all flagrant tears, but a commentary on the unsettling denial by the French of having any part in the ‘Vél d’Hiv’ – or the roundup of thousands of Jewish people in one night to deport them to Auschwitz.

The author uncovers historical information using fictional characters. In “Sarah’s Key,” a heartbreaking, cliff-hanger story, a sister tries to save her little brother from the Vél d’Hiv by locking him in her secret cupboard, and promising to return and save him.

The girl must fight with what little power and strength she has to return from the concentration camps and find her brother. In a somewhat parallel story, a woman in the present day named Julia finds she is eerily connected to this little girl.

Through suspense, hope, and heartache, “Sarah’s Key” does not disappoint.