Anthony Doerr
An American author known for his beautifully written and emotionally resonant novels, often exploring themes of memory, resilience, and the impact of historical events on individual lives. His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, weaves together the stories of a blind French girl and a young German soldier during World War II with lyrical prose and profound human connection. Doerr's evocative storytelling has earned him critical acclaim and a wide readership.
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.