Author: Anthony Doerr

I waited a long time to get my hands on this book. I would search the library listing and see it was available but by the time I made it to the library it would be gone again. I finally put my name on the Hold list and eventually it was my turn.

Werner is a young German orphan who is intrigued by the radio he has managed to build in the attic of the home he lives in. Marie-Laure is a young French girl who lives with her father in Paris. Marie-Laure is blind. As the war in Europe unfolds, Werner is forced into the army and Marie-Laure is forced to flee Paris with her father. Both characters wind up in the small seaside town of Saint-Malo.

The book is told in very short sections bouncing between the current day (under the heavy bombing of Saint-Malo) and the years when the two children were growing up. I thought I might not like the moving between the two storylines but it didn’t bother me at all once I got into the book. And I was particularly pleased as there was some follow-up to both of their stories after the war.

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