by Anthony Doerr.
Burntout rating: 4.8/5
This book is recommended for avid readers. Effective to kill time on a long plane journey or a beach holiday ahead.
The author is a best selling American Novelist, Anthony Doerr also known for his book, Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Few authors can so gently pull readers into such deep understanding of their characters. The story is set in the time around which World War 2 took place. Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, for whom the world is full of mazes, takes refuge in a walled city by the sea when Nazis invade Paris. On the other hand, Werner Pfenning is an orphan boy in pre-World War II Germany, was brought into the notice of Hitler Youth. The author is very meticulous in explaining the feelings and surroundings of the characters and forces the readers to view and feel the world from the perspective of a blind little girl and an inquisitive orphan boy.
The book is a page-turner and extremely absorbing. The reader will be in awe of the author’s attention to detail. It has hauntingly beautiful prose, flipping back and forth between different time periods. This book paints how warfare affects people, normal people living in that time.