I had a long wait for this one, and it was well worth it. This lovely novel is set in the heart of European World War II, but telescopes that massive backdrop into the stories of two young people, the Parisian teenager Marie Laure, blind since age 6, and Werner, an orphan in a coal-mining village in Germany. Werner is a kind of prodigy of electronics, assembling and repairing radios throughout his village. Meanwhile Marie Laure learns to navigate the streets of Paris by memorizing wooden models crafted by her adoring father, a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History. The long winding plot bounces back and forth between the years leading up to the war and an intense few days in August 1944 during the bombing of St Malo on France's west coast.
Mr Doerr's writing is almost too good for the plot, dense and clever as it is, even featuring a mysterious diamond shrouded in a dangerous legend. He, or his editors, may have had their hopes set on a Hollywood deal (and they may get one), but this story is more than a fast-paced tearjerker. It is a beautiful look at what it means to see, and to hear, and to live a good life.
No comments:
Post a Comment