Ratings122
Average rating4.3
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work
Reviews with the most likes.
This was a wonderfully written book and it was interesting to see a sombre look at WWII that didn't even really touch on the Holocaust at all.
There were points midway through the book that dragged a bit though, and I thought events ultimately wandered a bit too far into “look what war does to us” territory, but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
(3.5)
This book just didn't do it for me. had a great start and middle, but towards the end it got confusing and jumped around too much.
a positive of this book was the short chapters and writing style. the short chapters were very easy to read and the writing made it feel like I was actually there
that's the only positives tbh, was mostly bored
An incredible read that captivates from the very start! Beautifully descriptive language, fully realised characters, and a plot that circles inexorably towards its conclusion in the most beautiful - and at times haunting - way.
I really enjoyed how Doerr brought the magical potential of radio to life, and how they shone light on occupied French civilian life as well as the life of a young German in the war. Incredible to see people swept along by larger narratives which often seem too strong for them to hold any sway over.
A very beautifully written book, which rapidly builds its world and brings the story out in full.
Full of wonder. A sensitive tragedy with what seems at first glance to be unsatisfactory endings, and yet those endings are fully intentional. There's a death at the end that feels somewhat throwaway and pointless, but the character only wanted redemption and release. The diamond remains lost, and I'm still working out why that was done..
One sentence synopsis... The sentimental, superficial story of a precious diamond, a gifted German boy, and a blind French girl caught in the violence of WWII. .
Read it if you like... formulaic bookclub bait. It's not poorly written or excruciatingly boring but it is bland. The two main characters are both deeply (tediously) sympathetic, the villain is a caricature, everything is so closely plotted that it's impossible to not see the author's work. .
Further reading... any of the other book-by-numbers, light, enjoyable but violently meh bookclub favs, ie. ‘The Help', ‘The Kite Runner', or for another WWII one ‘The Nightingale'.