The story follows Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a French girl blinded by cataracts at age 6, whose locksmith father taught her in childhood to understand the world through touch and memory, as she attempts to contact her father and uncle via a radio across enemy lines from a village in France, after the outbreak of World War II. Living alone in German-occupied Saint-Malo as a young woman, Marie-Laure comes into contact over the radio with Werner Pfennig, a German soldier and savant of sorts.
Levy told Vanity Fair that he went to great lengths to cast an actor in the role of Marie-Laure LeBlanc, finding Aria Mia Loberti in the haypile of audition tapes. Loberti is legally blind, and pursuing a doctorate in ancient rhetoric at Penn State. (Nell Sutton plays Marie-Laure in flashbacks.) Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and Louis Hofmann are also cast.
by Janet Manley, LitHub | Read more:
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[ed. Loved the book, trailer looks good. See also: 13 Adaptations Better Than the Books They’re Based On; and, 22 (More) Adaptations Better Than the Books They’re Based On (LitHub).]
