Magpie
As Julia spends time with her sister and her husband she has some time to contemplate what was going to happen for her and her marriage. Do you think Julia will be happy after her marriage ends like her sisters? Does she have a second chance for happiness in a marriage? Does it feel like the author is giving you another clue?
Does it bother you that Julia is keeping things from Zoe it preserve her happiness as Sarah’s parents did for her?
After Julia reveals what she knows about Sarah to William, she doesn’t get the reaction she was hoping for. Had Julia spent so much time thinking about her reaction to the history that she didn’t take the time to consider how William would handle things?
On page 264 Julia interprets William’s expression as a plea for “time and silence, and peace. “ that he needed “time to find out who I now am.” Do you think such thoughts echoed those of his mother?
As Julia sits with the Tezac family after they have learned about the families secret, their reception of the history is mixed and it takes Zoe to tell them about Mame knowing and about how proud she was of her mother to have done what she did. What significance does the author give that moment by having a young person being the person to remember and be proud?
How did baby Sarah help Bertrand and Julia finally come to terms with their marriage and the truths about what they wanted?
Sarah, Julia and William all go to America to have a fresh start after a very difficult period in their lives. What will make this transition work for Julia and William where it didn’t for Sarah? How will they learn from her mistakes?
If you didn’t like the ending – how would you have changed it?
How did this book teach you about, or change your impression of, this important chapter in French history?
How do you imagine what happens after the end of the novel? What do you think Julia’s life will be like now that she knows the truth about Sarah? What truths do you think she’ll learn about herself?
What does it take for a novelist to bring a “real” historical event to life? To what extent do you think de Rosnay took artistic liberties with this work?
Why do modern readers enjoy novels about the past? How and when can a powerful piece of fiction be a history lesson in itself ?
We are taught, as young readers, that every story has a “moral”. Is there a moral to Sarah’s Key? What can we learn about our world—and our selves—from Sarah’s story?
In a story filled with so much grief, what were some positive aspects of Sarah’s Key?
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