I really enjoyed this book - I thought the overall story-telling concept was really very interesting and engaging. It's told from two primary points of view - a modern day American woman living in Paris and a little girl living in Paris during WWII. The two stories center on the July 16, 1942 roundup of Parisian Jews by the French police for their eventual transport to Auschwitz - this round up was called the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv (the name of an indoor sports arena where they were kept in awful conditions for several days).
The modern story comments that most in Paris were not aware of the round up in their history and when confronted with it, were reluctant to discuss it or accept it. Maybe just because I love history so much I found that entire concept insane and I'm not sure if its a common one that most people would share or if the author was focusing on Parisian's in particular.
I found the last one-third of the book kind of exasperating though - it moves from the two different perspectives to just the modern woman's (to keep suspense for the little girl's eventual fate). I felt like this part dragged on a little too long and some of the new character's she introduced were really weird. I thought the very end was predictable but it did round out the story well.
All in all, I'd recommend the book for a good weekend read!
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