Anthony Doerr

This is a wonderful book. Its main characters are a blind girl, Marie-Laure, the daughter of the keeper of locks at Paris' Natural History Museum, and Werner, a German orphan who with his sister lives in an impoverished but loving orphanage. The narrative switches between them, and slides backwards and forwards through the years surrounding the Second World War.

Limited by the circumstances of their young lives, both travel away from their birth places. Marie-Laure's father is charged with a secret responsibility and flees from Paris to Saint-Malo where he has relatives, and Werner is picked out because his extraordinary skill in tinkering with radios brings him to the attention of the Hitler Youth.

These individuals are sensitively drawn. But so are the supporting characters: Marie-Laure's father and uncle, the housekeeper: Werner's sister, his house mother in the orphanage, and most devastatingly of all, his delicate and unworldly friend Frederick.

The towns and countryside which form the backdrop to the story, and the passages which allude to the natural world convince as well. Language is graphic and poetic, and the story itself is a strong one.

My only minor criticism is that I would have left the narrative, with its unanswered questions, at the end of the war. Fast forwarding to the post-war years and the very recent past served no purpose for me. Despite the fact that, after 530 pages, I had no desire for the book to end.… (lisätietoja)