All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2014)

Another amazing historical novel about World War II, from the viewpoint of a couple of fascinating young people, but touching on a few important aspects of how people were affected by the war. I have my parents' story, but here are the stories of some of the French and Germans.

Marie-Laure grows up in Paris, blind, but with a devoted father who works in the natural history museum, who teaches her the world through her fingers. He builds her an accurate model of their neighborhood, so she can get around on her own.When the war forces them to flee to Saint-Malo on the coast of France, in Brittany, he again builds her a model of that town. She is a curious and brave soul who manages quite well by using her other senses, so we get her story full of sounds and smells and tactile experiences.

Werner grows up in a German mining town, in an orphanage with his sister. As he scrounges around for food, he finds a broken radio, is fascinated by it, fixes it, and listens to broadcasts - including one from France that is about science for children. He knows French from the French born caretaker of the orphanage. His skills are noted and he is pulled out and trained in a special camp to be an exemplary soldier for the German army.

Don't have time to finish this review, but Marie-Laure and Werner show us the war from their point of view and meet at the end. We see the resistance regular people put up, and we see the difficult jobs the regular German soldiers had to do, the brainwashing they were subjected to.

No wonder this book got the Pulitzer Prize.