On the cover of the book, there is a woman walking down a street. The stark contrast of her wide, red flaring coat against the narrow cobble-stoned almost colorless road, was beautiful and evoked memories of the child in the red coat against a black and white background in Schindler\'s List. That picture of that child remained indelibly in my mind\'s eye and made me wonder if there wasn\'t some hidden sadness, locked deep within the pages of this book, as well. My suspicions were correct.

For his sister Clarisse\'s 40th birthday, Antonio takes her on a trip to their childhood vacation spot. His family enjoyed several summers there until their mother died mysteriously. The resort town sparks a memory in his sister\'s mind, which is so disturbing that she drives off the road and is seriously injured. The remainder of the book is really about Tonio and Melanie\'s search to find out more about their mother, her past and her death. Their father shut down after her death, and shortly after, remarried and basically erased their mother from their lives.

There are many characters and there was a point where I was confused about the identity of some of them, but eventually, they all fell into place and lent themselves well to this very original and creative tale. The characters are interesting in and of themselves. The scenes and locales are described very well by the author, and it was easy to be absorbed into the events of the moment, with the images clearly pictured in one\'s mind. It is a tale of loss, love and learning. It is about social issues. The characters have to explore themselves and come to terms with their own shortcomings and strengths.
If the book is compared to Sarah\'s Key, it will fall short. If judged on its own merits, it will be a great book club pick with many issues to discuss. It is a mystery, a love story and a tale of secrets and their effects on the lives of other. I think on a larger scale, it is a story about the trials of life and how we choose to live it.

This book was good, but not great. It was a coming of age for Antoine, the main character, but there were too many angles. Antoine became stronger at the end, but there were many questions left unanswered about his family.

We chose this book because we loved Tatiana De Rosnay's first book, Sarah's Key, so much. We all agreed that this was not of the same quality. That said we did enjoy the book although the characters were not as likable and somewhat confusing at times, which left us with much to discuss. The end left us with questions that were never answered. All in all, the book was ok but not one of our favorites.

The juxtaposition of lives through four generations was an absorbing comparison of moralities where we had to agree that you cannot accurately judge people by the times they lived in. Acceptance (or not) is a personal judgement which can be reevaluated over changing times. The question that caused most discussion concerned whether family secrets should be revealed or remained hidden as we shared amongst ourselves our own family secrets.