"So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?"
"To really touch something, she is learning—the bark of a sycamore tree in the gardens; a pinned stag beetle in the Department of Etymology; the exquisitely polished interior of a scallop shell in Dr. Geffard’s workshop—is to love it."
"To shut your eyes is to guess nothing of blindness. Beneath your world of skies and faces and buildings exists a rawer and older world, a place where surface planes disintegrate and sounds ribbon in shoals through the air."
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
"A beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II." That is truly all that you need to know. The language is beautiful, and each chapter takes you from one perspective to next. Back and forth, very quickly. No more than a few minutes inside the mindset of blind Marie-Laure, and then a few minutes with Werner. Then back again. Like a game of ping-pong. No, my metaphors will not do this book justice. Best thing I have read this summer.