"The Shell Collector" author Doerr's newest novel is the story of a blind French girl and a German boy who encounter each other in WWII-era Europe. Marie-Laure escaped from Paris with her father as the Nazis took over the city, bringing with them to the city of Saint-Malo a valuable jewel from Paris's Museum of Natural History. Meanwhile, German Werner is a whiz with radios, a talent that puts him in the Hitler Youth and later earns him the task of investigating the resistance. Nelson calls Doerr a "poet." "It's really about childhood and the way children construct their own magical worlds," she says of the novel.
