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It's the story of a blind girl in France and an orphaned boy in Germany.
The historical fiction flashes back and forth to earlier times in their lives and the moments they are experiencing with us as we read the book.
Marie - Laure loses her sight at age 6 in 1934. Her father works at the National History Museum in Paris.
Werner and his sister, Jutta, were orphaned in a mining town in Germany when their father never returns home.
The novel takes us along with each of them as they are forced to travel a road neither wanted to walk.
Werner is fascinated by radio. He learns about them. He learns to fix them. So well, in fact, the German Army wants his talent.
Marie - Laure adores her father. He helps open her world through puzzles and three dimensional maps and braille story books.
Just in time, Marie - Laure and her father escape Paris and the invading Nazi troops to the home of their crazy uncle. The uncle suffers the effects of World War I. His escape is a small transmitter on the top floor of the house he broadcasts to whomever is listening.
In earlier days of his hobby, two of those listeners were Werner and his sister in Germany before the war.
Lightly perched on Marie and Werner's shoulders every step of the way is the author, tracing their steps as they try to manage their individual crisis in the shadow of an international tragedy.
You know how the main story ends (spoiler alert - the Germans lose the war), but learning what happens to these teenagers in wartime is gripping and heart-wrenching. Then the author fills in the rest of the story after the war.
The radio waves we can't see pulsates through each page around Werner and Marie-Laure. The same, unseen light effects us still.
It's a powerful story; I suggest you check it out.
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