This is a grippingly told ode to the book - a deftly crafted tale that winds through various turning points in the life of a text. Doerr's characters are all inspired in their own way, to try to create something better. At first this seems more philosophical but as the novel winds on, it becomes clearer that this book is connected in a very practical way to the future of humanity. I found it slow going at first, but by the middle I was desperately hooked into the story, and the fates of all the individual characters.