Upcoming Books:
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is reading "All the Light We Cannot See" written by Anthony Doerr on January 29.
2014 National Book Award finalist, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr tells the story of two children, one German and other French, whose lives intersect during World War II. In 1944, near the town of Saint-Malo on the northern French coast, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, blind, fearless and French, fatefully encounters Werner Pfennig, a German orphan with a mechanical knack for radios, when he is sent to seek out and destroy enemy radios. A third character, a Nazi officer named Sergeant Major von Rumpel balances out the tale. The book alternates between each character's story told against the backdrop of the war. Werner becomes a member of Hitler's Youth to escape the life of a miner. At the time, Hitler believed the future of Nazi Germany was dependent upon its youth. Children were taught, "The weak must be chiselled away. I want young men and women who can suffer pain. A young German must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather, and as hard as Krupp's steel." Werner is no exception. Marie-Laure LeBlanc is the daughter of a widowed locksmith for the Museum of Natural History in Paris. When Marie-Laure goes blind at the age of six, her father creates a miniature model city to teach Marie-Laure the neighborhood streets to help her navigate on her own. These miniatures contained puzzles and play an important role in Marie-Laure's survival. Von Rumpel is searching for a missing gem from the Museum of Natural History. The Sea of Flames is a rare and massive 133 carat pear-cut diamond, blue as the sea with a flare of red at its core. Von Rumpel believes that Marie-Laure's father has stolen it. Doerr weaves the children's stories together with science, technology and light. |