THE BOOK FAIR

Set primarily during the years of WW II, the book encompasses three stories, which tie to the central figure, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a young, French Parisian.   Marie, who loses her sight in early childhood, is encouraged by her father, a museum director, to continually, expand her world, through music, literature and exploration. 

Werner Pfenning, a German orphan of extraordinary talent, is saved from the drudgery of the mines by his conscription into the Wehrmacht.  Werner, a gentle youth, whose interests reside in study and technology, must set the sympathy in his heart and conscious aside to survive the brutal dictates of his fellow soldiers.

Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumple plunders the wealth of conquered countries, as he searches, determined to find the Sea of Flame, a precious jewel that escaped his grasp in the Paris museum.

 

The novel moves back and forth in time revealing segments of the character’s lives, before, during and after the war and expands the characters personalities through the knowledge of friends or family members.  The book expounds upon the differences of human nature during war and the possibility of healing borne from love.

The continual shift between characters, and time and place, interrupted the continuity of the novel.  The characters lacked full, heartfelt and sensitive, development.