This book follows the story of two main characters, Marie-Laure LaBlanc, a blind French girl, and Werner Pfennig, a German boy, during World War II. Marie-Laure's father works in a museum and is entrusted with a rare gem, Sea of Flames. They end up having to run from their home and living with her great uncle and his caregiver, Etienne and Madame Manec.

Werner lives with his sister, Jutta, in a German orphanage run by a French woman, Frau Elena. A very smart boy, he ends up being able to join a military school where he meets his friend, Frederick, and another student, later to become his friend, Volkheimer. As Germany develops a shortage of soldiers, he's drafted early (at the age of 16, though they insist he's 18) where he spends most of his war-time service looking for illegal radio transmissions.

In the end, their lives intersect briefly because Marie-Laure is doing transmissions on her great-uncle's radio.

People interested in knowing more about WWII, but who are not already very well versed in it, or who can overlook historical mistakes and simply enjoy the story.

This isn't about the story, but I especially liked that the chapters were mostly short--3-5 pages. I was more willing to keep reading when I was a little tired than I would have been if I'd been facing a 20 page chapter next.

Because of a brain injury, I have trouble with sequencing, memory, and focus. This book changes character focus every chapter, so it was hard for me to remember who was who, especially in the first 1/4-1/3 or so of the book. I also struggled with the fact that the book was divided into sections with the sections going back and forth in time. For a person with sequencing issues, this made the book really hard to follow.

The author won a Pulitzer Prize for this book. It's also been on the New York times bestseller list.

If you like WWII and don't have trouble with memory and sequencing, this was a good book. As a best seller, obviously it's been quite popular. I hope you enjoy it!

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Created Jan 03, 2017 at 11:27am • Submit your own review...