All the Light We Cannot See

This brand new novel by Anthony Doerr is set in the run-up to and through WWII, and told through the viewpoints of two main characters. Marie Laure went fully blind at age 6 and lives with her father, who is the key master at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. As the Germans approach Paris, Marie-Laure's father is entrusted by the museum with a rare diamond to keep it hidden; Marie-Laure and her father head east and eventually arrive to stay with her great uncle, Etienne, on the isle of Saint-Malo. Her father is not only a skilled locksmith, but also a maker of exquisite small models. He built one for Marie-Laure of their entire Paris neighborhood so she could learn her way around. He is building her one for the town of Saint-Malo when he is betrayed by a collaborator for "taking measurements" of buildings.  Interned in a German prison camp, he is never seen again. Etienne has suffered what was then called "shell shock" from his experience in the Great War, and has not left his house (and often his room) for several decades. He is cared for by a housekeeper, who gets fed up and joins the resistance. She persuades Etienne to use a hidden radio transmitter in the attic of their house to transmit logistical coordinates. When the old woman dies of pneumonia, Marie-Laure and Etienne take over the task of picking up the information in a loaf of bread and transmitting the valuable data.
Our other main story teller is Werner Pfennig, who, with his younger sister Jutta, is raised by an French nun in an orphanage in a mining town in Germany. Their father was killed in the mines and Werner expects the same fate to befall him unless he can escape. He finds old radio parts in the trash and is able to receive transmissions of science talks for kids before they are cut off by the war. It turns out that the broadcasts were recordings made by Etienne's brother. Werner becomes the local radio repair wizard and at age 12 is sent to a school for German boys to be trained as an electronics engineer. He eventually helps develop equipment that can be used to locate the transmissions of resistance groups and is sent out with a small group of German soldiers to locate these radios and kill the people operating them. Near the end of the war, he gets sent to Saint-Malo and his path crosses that of Marie-Laure, but he cannot bring himself to betray her.
This is a story rich in character, setting, and emotion. It is often bleak, although not hopeless. Excellent historical fiction and a thoroughly engrossing read. Rave reviews and more detailed summaries from the NYT, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.