Because You'll Never Meet Me

A doctor sets up a pen-pal correspondence between Ollie and Moritz, two boys with severe medical conditions that make them, in Ollie’s words, “fellow hermits.” But if that brings them together as allies, it will keep them apart in real life -- Ollie, an American, is allergic to electricity and has spent his life in a cabin in the woods (even being near a power line can induce a seizure). Moritz, in Germany, was born without eyes and has a pacemaker. In exuberant (Ollie) and heart-wrenching (Moritz) letters, the boys tell each other about the parts of life the other misses out on. Burbling beneath the surface of this realistic fiction novel about the complexities of friendship and alienation, though, is something more speculative. Ollie’s epilepsy verges on the supernatural -- he doesn’t just react badly to electricity; superhero-like, he repels it, due to an electromagnetic power in his own body. And Moritz compensates for his blindness with echolocation. As each boy nears the height of desperation with the limitations of his respective condition, they also discover that their abilities may be manmade and that their connection with each other began earlier than their correspondence. Readers can take or leave the science-fiction elements; it’s the distinct, deeply memorable voices of Ollie and Moritz that make this novel an affecting page-turner. sarah hannah gómez

Ollie is allergic to electricity; his German pen pal and "fellow hermit" Moritz was born without eyes and has a pacemaker. Beneath the surface of this realistic fiction novel about friendship and alienation is something more speculative: Ollie actually repels electricity, Moritz can echolocate, and these abilities may be manmade. The protagonists' distinct, deeply memorable voices make this an affecting page-turner.