Strangely enough most reviews I've read said that this book was about WWII. True the events in the book do occur during that war but to me WWII was more like a prop than the subject of the work. Basically we see the the drama through the eyes of two children, a French blind girl (in her case of course it's more "we feel") and a German boy. But in fact it's much more about their respective internal worlds than about the war as such and if only to read how a young 15 years old blind girl first discovers the ocean, it's gigantic might and incredible mildness for the first time by sounds, smells and feelings on her skin is worth the effort (or in my case pleasure).