“Even the poorest pit houses usually possess a state-sponsored Volkempfanger VE301, a mass-produced radio stamped with an eagle and a swastika, incapable of shortwave, marked only for German frequencies.Radio: it ties a million ears to a single mouth. Out of loudspeakers all around Zollverein, the staccato voice of the Reich grows like some imperturbable tree; its subjects lean toward its branches as if toward the lips of God.”

American novelist and short story writer

Anthony Doerr is an American novelist and short story writer. He came to wide attention with his 2014 novel All the Light We Cannot See, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His work spans novels and short fiction, and he is especially known for the success of All the Light We Cannot See. The book brought him broad recognition and established him as a major contemporary American literary voice.