All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. I don't know why I waited so long to read Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. I've loved his other books—in fact, his 2010 story collection, Memory Wall, was among the best books I read that year, so I know he's a tremendously talented writer. Maybe I hesitated because the book has already begun showing up on a number of year-end "best" lists, and lately I've had a bit of a disconnect between those the critics label as best of the year and those of which I'm most enamored. Well, I needn't have worried, because Doerr's latest is as good, and beautifully written, as I hoped it might be. In the early 1940s, the world is on the brink of war. Marie-Laure is a 12-year-old girl living in Paris with her father, a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History. Although Marie-Laure went blind at the age of six, she has a tremendous thirst for knowledge and a passion about the world around her, particularly the natural world. Ever-protective of his daughter, Marie-Laure's father built a model of their Paris neighborhood so she can navigate the streets and always find her way home. Meanwhile, in a German mining town, young Werner Pfennig is growing up with his sister, Jutta, in an orphanage. When the two discover a radio, it opens up a world of dreams and information. Werner also discovers his ability to repair and build radios, as well as his ability to grasp complicated mathematical and scientific concepts. This intelligence catches the interest of a Nazi officer, who sees that Werner is enrolled in an elite Hitler Youth school, where the fervor for perfection and rooting out inferiority begins to turn him into a person he doesn't recognize. As war closes in, Marie-Laure and her father flee Paris and head to the seaside town of Saint-Malo, where her eccentric great-uncle Etienne lives. Etienne has never been the same since the first World War, and he is unprepared for just how profoundly his life—and the lives of those around him—will be affected by Marie-Laure's presence, as well as the town's resistance to the Nazi occupation. And Werner finds himself on the front lines, as he is part of a team tracking down those using radios to subvert the Nazis. Werner and Marie-Laure's lives will intersect in a profound way, both when they are at one of their weakest moments. And this encounter will have an indelible impact on the lives of many for years to come. "To men like that, time was a surfeit, a barrel they watched slowly drain. When really, he thinks, it's a glowing puddle you carry in your hands; you should spend all your energy protecting it. Fighting for it. Working so hard not to spill one single drop." This is an exquisite, wonderfully told story. The characters are tremendously vivid and came to life for me, and I found myself fully immersed in what was happening to them. Although the book unfolds slowly, I was never bored, and although I had some suspicions about how certain events would be resolved, I felt some suspense at what would happen. Doerr is truly so talented, and although the book's switching back forth between two points in time sometimes made me take a moment to re-orient myself to where I was in the plot, I enjoyed this book so, so much. If you don't need a book to move at breakneck speed, but you want a story to savor, pick up All the Light We Cannot See. This is one of those books I could see as a fantastic movie as well, but the book is so worth reading.

This is not my usual read, but I was curious after seeing it everywhere, and figured I can take a break from my YA and fantasy reads. It is a book filled with beautiful prose and imagery and poignant emotions. It’s a book that you have to take time to savor and enjoy and not rush through, and that’s exactly what I did. The book follows two children, Marie-Laure, a blind girl in France, and Werner, an orphan in Germany. Marie lives with her father in Paris in the 1930s before the war began and goes with her father to the National Museum where her father works as a locksmith. They had to leave Paris when the war began and went to Saint Malo, where her great-uncle lives. There is no parallel to the beauty of Doerr’s writing and how he brought the world alive for a blind girl. Marie’s story is heartbreaking and is a story of a child who had to grow up too early. It’s a similar story to other survivors who at the end of war never have closure, never find out what happened to her family or friends. Werner was an orphan in a mining town in Germany, along with his sister Jutta. Werner was a natural with radios and wavelengths. Some would say he was a genius, and that was how he escaped being sent to work in the mines. One official discovered his brilliance and sent him to military school. I don’t read a lot of WWII novels often, so it was depressing even see the German side of the story. Yes, they did horrible things, but from Werner’s side, you see the brainwashing of the German population, starting with young boys. Anyone that did not fit in with the ideology was eliminated or worse. Werner’s story is an example of that. He tried so hard to fit in and had to do some horrible things, and I think he could never forgive himself. I’m not saying all Germans deserve sympathy, but Werner was just as much a victim to the regime as the people of the conquered countries. The story jumped between two different timelines. It began with August 1944 then jumped all the way back to 1934 to trace the stories of these two kids. Each chapter is short and concise, and I think that’s also what made it easier for me to stop and put it down and to really take the time to enjoy it. There’re parts near the end that was very unsatisfactory, when Marie and Werner finally meet. I wish the author had done more there. I can see that the way Doerr presented it was realistic and in line with the overall tone of the story. Still, it broke my heart and left my wanting for more. Overall, I enjoyed it for a book that’s usually out of my genre and am glad I experienced it.

This a wonderful book. It's easy to see why it has been nominated for so many awards and was voted Goodreads Best Historical Fiction winner in 2014. I can't begin to give it the insightful review it deserves and as there are already so many excellent reviews already out there, here are just a few thoughts. In telling us the story of two ordinary children (both extraordinary in their own ways) as they live through WWII from childhood to adolescence, Anthony Doerr has somehow shown us the futility and brutality of war better than any story based at the battlefront. Even while he is showing us that men can be warped to destroy all that is good and beautiful, he is showing us that there is still hope and beauty to be found even at the darkest of moments. Marie-Laure LeBlanc, blind since the age of six is taught by her father to navigate the streets of Paris and to feel the amazing textures of feathers, gemstones and shells, to read in Braille and work out puzzles with her nimble fingers. Werner, growing up an orphan in Germany, is self taught, using his love of mathematics and electronics to become a master at fixing radios and then being trained to find hidden transmitters for the Reich.Marie-Laure's love of shells and snails and Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is mirrored by Werner's ability to 'see' radiowaves and imagine electrons dancing down the wires. Both are sensitive children who see beauty in books and music and are affected differently by the war. Werner, searching for the radios of the resistance is largely sheltered from the atrocities of the war as he himself does not have to kill the resistance fighters they find. He worries about his little sister, Jutta back at the orphanage, unable to accept what he is doing. By leaving Paris for Saint-Malo on the east coast, Marie-Laure's father hoped to keep her safe but when matters take a turn for the worse, she decides that she must do what she can to help to defeat the enemy. In addition to Werner and Marie-Laure, there were many other wonderful characters in this book. Marie-Laure's father Daniel, locksmith at the Museum of Natural History who not only helps her to 'see' and feel the natural world but builds her tiny models of the houses and shops of her neighborhood in Paris and then in Saint-Malo so she can find her way around the streets by herself. Marie-Laure's Uncle Etienne, a recluse who returned damaged from WWI, has built a life for himself in his room with his radios, books and artifacts but can't ignore the war when it lands on his doorstep. His housekeeper Madame Manec, fierce protector of Marie-Laure and Etienne but also organising the other women of the town to stand up to the occupiers. Werner's school friend Frederick, we feel most for; a clever, sensitive boy who loves birds, he was never meant to be a soldier. His story, the saddest of them all is symbolic of the training the boys received and perhaps for the war itself, teaching them to ignore beauty and stamp out anything weak and sensitive. Running alongside Werner's and Marie-Laurie's stories is also the story of a German officer searching for a valuable diamond, the Sea of Flames, taken from the Museum as the Germans marched on Paris and then hidden away. Seemingly a minor story, it is also symbolic of the light that is kept hidden during the war and freed again at the end. Towards the end of the book the three stories come together in unexpected ways as Saint-Malo is relentlessly bombed by the Allied forces as the Germans fight to keep a foothold in France. All in all, this was such a good book on so many levels; great writing, good stories, great atmosphere - you can feel what it is like to be Marie-Laurie tapping down the street with her cane, listening to all the sounds, smelling scents and feeling breezes or to be Werner trapped in a cellar with a radio playing some long lost voices from his childhood.I also enjoyed the ending, even though a few reviewers have found it unsatisfying. The novel could easily stopped at the end of the war, but I felt it was a bonus that the author tied up loose ends and brought us up to current times.

I resisted reading All The Light We Cannot See when it was published in May, thinking the world did not really need another novel about the Second World War. Well, I was wrong. It is quite a vocabulary challenge to find the adjectives to describe this marvelous book without falling into cliché. Anthony Doerr’s wordsmithery is superb, his storyline development masterful, and the characters described so vividly that it is absolutely inconceivable that a reader could resist engaging in their lives. The main protagonists are a German orphan boy and a blind young French girl. I assure you there is no schmaltz in this story, which was what I feared when I read some of the blurbs. This is not a book to be read quickly, but one the reader will want to savor, soaking in all the luscious details of the plot evolution. Werner Pfennig and his younger sister Jutta live in a Children’s House with about a dozen other children of various ages in a small German mining town of Zollverein. Frau Elena is their loving caregiver who also teaches them French. It is 1934 and curious, clever Werner peppers Frau Elena with questions, and with his sister Jutta scours the junk piles in search of “stuff” from which he makes things. One day he finds an old radio and figures out to repair it, which opens a new world to the Children’s House. For one hour an evening, they listen together to music and programs on the radio, after which Werner takes it back up to his sleeping area. When unable to sleep one night, Werner finds a broadcast by a French man teaching science to children and playing classical music. Werner and Jutta listen faithfully for weeks until no longer able to receive his signal. This “French professor” and his broadcasts will turn out to be a link to a young blind Parisian girl living about 300 miles from Zollverein. Marie-Laure LeBlanc lives in Paris with her father Daniel, the chief locksmith at the National Museum of Natural History, just a few blocks from their apartment. Marie-Laure’s blindness was caused by congenital cataracts and by age six, her sight is gone. Daniel built his daughter a replica of their Parisian neighborhood, whittling every building in exact miniature and making sure she memorizes it. He also takes her out for walks and makes her find the way to different destinations and back home, always a step or two behind, always close, always coaching her to use logic and reason. While Daniel is working, “Laurette” spends her time at the museum learning about locks while shadowing him and occasionally learning about shells, mollusks, whelks and other topics from the museum’s expert, Dr. Geffard with whom she spends occasional afternoons. All the characters in this book had to accept and learn to live with harsh realities. Werner and Jutta’s father died in a mining accident and with their mother already gone, the Children’s House was their only option. Werner would be sent down to the mines when he reached his 15th birthday, as were all the boys. His engineering skills earned him a different fate. Still, the lack of autonomy, opportunity and individual choice in society at that time is sobering to see in print. It is refreshing to read a book about the Second World War that writes Germans as real people, not stereotypes goose stepping their way through life. The trek that Daniel and Laurette make when they have to leave Paris to join his uncle in the seaside town of Saint Malo is horrific, exhilarating and inspiring. The starkness of daily life during wartime for the civilians, soldiers and French resistance are depicted in heart-wrenching detail. Doerr wraps up the stories of the main characters at the end of the book, taking us to the year 2014. I have read some great books over the past year, some superb for their genre, but I believe All The Light We Cannot See is a modern classic, even though it was only published 4 months ago.

When we try to erase our history by banning books, there is something seriously wrong, in my opinion. For me, it didn't take this book or the thousands of others I've read, to know what early Americans did to the Indigenous people who occupied most of America from early times... It didn't take this book for me to know what happened during WWII and how people were being treated by the Nazi Regime... What a book does for me is to allow me to either reaffirm what I have seen or studied... Or, to read of different opinions that may help me better understand my neighbors... If you enjoy historical novels, this book is a must-read. Perhaps you have already read it or know about the movie (several videos provided here for information...) Whether or not I later see the movie, I am thankful that I read the book first. There is so much in this book that needs to be considered--to remember. My guess is that the magic cannot possibly be demonstrated in a movie... And, it appears that the relationship between the two teens might be emphasized in the movie. Indeed, I was shocked, after reading the book description and videos, that their meeting did not take place until very late in the book! My anticipation had been stoked so much so that I kept waiting for that meeting! I wasn't necessarily disappointed that the emphasis was on these two people, but I believe the hype was misleading. On the other hand, readers will be immediately caught up in what happened when the Germans (BTW I am of German descent on both sides of my parents.) It was important for me to read this particular book. I have read many about the Holocaust, and at least one set in Poland. Having this book set in France gave me new information that I may not have ever known. You see, my father worked in the mines and was killed before I was born. My mother was left a widow with four children... It was in France, in the Walled citadel of Saint Malo, that this book was set. And, why was it taken over? Because there was a mine there and soon the residents of the town were being forced to work in that mine while being treated cruelly and with little food. Certainly the book brought me an awareness that if my family had not come to America, my father might have been in one of the mines in Europe that were being confiscated by Hitler in order to control the world that he planned to conquer! We meet Werner and his sister as they listen to the radio... Werner has found an old one that was not working and he had figured out how to fix it... Soon he was learning more and more, self-taught, as people heard of his ability to fix things that were electronic... As I am writing, I realize, for the first time, that the Frenchman that was broadcasting could be the very man that was related to Marie-Laure and to whose home they went when they were forced to leave their home... As I said, the book is long and so much can be discovered about that awful time period--war! Fortunately for Warner, his expertise was soon recognized so that instead of, when he was older, going to the front lines somewhere, he was sent to a school and then on, using his skills with radios to move around in search of illegal (as defined by Hitler) transmissions that were being used by, for instance, those in the small town of Saint Malo... I am not sure how much actual research supported this novel, but I was totally captured by the people living there and what they did when confronted with German soldiers who immediately took over the Mayor's residence. For he and the town residents, in one way or another displayed only disdain for what they were being forced to do. Yes, there was murder of local people. The book moves back and forth between the lives of the teen girl and boy. The girl had become blind and lived with her father, but when they had to leave their home, they hoped to find peace with a relative. By the time they got there, it was already too late. The Germans had taken over Saint Malo. Soon after Marie-Laure and her father arrived, her father was called back and nobody knew whether he had been killed or was captured and held, possibly tortured. A deadly subplot was the fact that Hitler had assigned one man to supervise the taking of all riches found in conquered areas so that they could create one big magnificent facility to display the booty of their conquests! And we follow this man in his travels as he carries out his orders, but, in doing so, became very ill and he became obsessed in finding one particular jewel that was said that anybody who owned it could not die. His search was intense and, finally, he had made his way to the location where Marie-Laure was staying... There we find the one scene in the entire book where Marie-Laure meets Werner... And she was not alone... I was fascinated with the father's skillful attention to his daughter's new disability and his creating a small scale version of his entire town (and later) another where they had moved, to allow his daughter to become self-sufficient. And, he brought his daughter to his workplace, the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, where he was the lockmaster for the entire building. There is no reference that any part of the book was based upon actual facts, except of course the war itself. When we allow ourselves to enter into the lives of those who are affected by war, hopefully we become more sympathetic and empathetic... If we are not permitted (by banning such books) to learn, we deny ourselves and our children the chance to learn about the lives of those outside of our personal environment and garner a certain level of respect for those who lived through these terrible hardships... We learned, for instance, that the owner of the home in Saint Malo in which Marie-Laure now lived, was her great-uncle Etienne who now refuses to leave his home, based upon his having been near his brother when he was murdered during the war, probably WWI... Yet, as Marie-Laure changes the daily routine, little by little, he begins to improve and ultimately leaves his home for the first time. At that time, his housekeeper had become involved in small ways of fighting back, making the soldiers in their town aware that they were not welcomed there... When his housekeeper dies, and Marie-Laure was unable to go out for food, he took that first step... In many ways, the book is heartbreaking, yet, readers will find, as I did, that we become invested in the lives of those who were silently fighting against the Germans, while knowing that they would be executed if they were discovered... While the actions taken against the Jewish people were horrific, a different type of torture was used against those living in Saint Malo! No actions taken by oppressors can be accepted. Given what is happening in Ukraine and Israel/Gaza, now may be the perfect time for you to read this book. It awakens your heart and mind to what we all must fight to end and prevent! Consider this, the book won a Pulitzer Prize for Literature...This book should never be banned from being used in schools for senior high...Yet, it has been... GABixlerReviews

This book is beautifully written, it is rich with metaphor, with compelling, likable characters, and a wonderful plot. Often times I found myself reading paragraphs out loud, the words so brilliantly strung together--nearly poetic. The book is at it's best when Marie is with her Papa. The single parent who has raised her, and as her sight begins to deteriorate rapidly--His love for her only intensifies. She is not a burden, she is his child. He so loves her that he carves (in wood) miniature scale replica's of the city, so that she can "see" it's lay-out. So she can find her way home, wherever she may be. He takes her for walks, guiding her along, teaching her to use sound, and smell, and her cane. He takes her into the city, then spins her around, "Marie--take us home, you can do it!" Frustrated, and scared-- She finally is able to accomplish this, her confidence and grace blooming. Their relationship is very endearing, and the book stumbles a bit when the two become separated. Then there is Werner, the white-haired, sky-blue eyed German boy, forced into the Hitler youth, his electronic genius paving the way from an orphan home, to the Nazi equivalent of West Point. He is brainwashed, yet manages to somehow maintain his humanity, and he does this through his relationships both with Frederick, his sister Jutta, and ultimately Marie-Laurie. The book slows a third of the way through, struggles to regain it's footing-- Like a driver who forgets to downshift after taking a turn, it eventually regains it's power-- but then struggles yet again at times. When it is good, it is really very good. Five Star good. But when it is not, is is merely okay. So I found myself loving, then liking, loving then liking--repeatedly, and it seemed longer than need be. I'm not sure how I would have edited it, because the slow parts do seem necessary to fully develop the characters, but it does feel a bit redundant at times. This could have been an exceptional book, there was just too much tangential stuff going on, I don't really feel as though the "diamond mystery" was necessary, in fact--I think if the book had taken a single focus, perhaps purely on Marie and Werner, and their struggles-- it would have seemed less scattered. Sometimes you can toss too many ingredients into a soup, and the flavors compete with one another instead of enhancing and balancing it. I think that is what happened here. I still recommend it, as I found it quite enjoyable, even though it is a bit uneven.

This book was beautifully written, and while I enjoyed it overall, there were a few things about it that I thought fell flat. First, the pros: Doerr's use of language and descriptions were fantastic. I really felt as if I knew what Saint-Malo looked like, as well as the other locales within the book. The pacing of the book was also well done, for a book that is over 500 pages, it never felt long. This is mostly due to the short chapters which were usually on average only two or three pages. Anytime a chapter was over 4 or 5 pages it felt out of place. The characters were memorable, especially Marie-Laure and Werner, and the supporting cast were also very well developed, each member of the cast had a purpose to go along with their personalities. Now, the cons: I didn't think the timeline of switching back and forth was necessary. The story progressed in a linear fashion for most of the book, but focused on the 1944 bombing of Saint-Malo, and kept going back to this randomly throughout. Whenever these sections came about, they distracted me, took me out of the story, and seemed to serve little purpose. Although this storyline is critical in the end and overall plot of the book, I felt all of these scenes could have just come at the end in the linear fashion they belonged and not have made much difference. (And now some SPOILERS so stop reading if you don't want to know.) Another thing that I found frustrating was the fact that Marie-Laure and Werner do not even meet/find out about one another until over 400 pages of the book has passed. The synopsis talks about how these two lives interconnect, and I felt like there was very little payoff to that sentiment. I would have enjoyed it if they shared more time together, and would have met much earlier in the book. The fact that Werner died right after he and Marie-Laure separate upset me, and did not seem to flow along the rest of the book. I suppose the author just wanted to show how these two random lives came together because of the war, and then were ripped apart again, so for that I can appreciate it, but as a reader I would have been happier if they would have reconnected later on in the future, no matter how much time had gone by. The final pages that take place in 1974 were nice, but the final chapter in 2014 seemed rather pointless. Although the passage about souls floating in the air above us, just like how technology is invisibly transferred through the air was probably the most powerful part of the book, and where the title comes from in part. I know I have some things to complain about with this, but it's just because I thought it could have been even better (from my reader's perspective.) Nevertheless, it was a good read, and I will recommend it to others, if merely for the scope of the entire piece, if nothing else.

This is an unusual tale from WWII. The author follows two main characters through events before, during, and after the war, switching perspectives throughout the novel in an easy-to-follow technique. The story held my interest and was a moving read.