All the light we cannot see : a novel

by Anthony Doerr

Paper Book, 2014

Status

Available

Call number

Fiction Doerr

Barcode

10624

Publication

New York : Scribner, 2014.

Description

Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML:*Winner of the Pulitzer Prize* A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book* A National Book Award Finalist* From Anthony Doerr, the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning author of Cloud Cuckoo Land, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller 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. *Soon to be a Netflix limited series from the producers of Stranger Things* Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Doerr's "stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors" (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer "whose sentences never fail to thrill" (Los Angeles Times).… (more)

Media reviews

What really makes a book of the summer is when we surprise ourselves. It’s not just about being fascinated by a book. It’s about being fascinated by the fact that we’re fascinated. The odds: 2-1 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr Pros: Blind daughter of a locksmith meets
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reluctant Nazi engineering whiz! What more do you want? Cons: Complex, lyrical historical fiction may not have the necessary mass appeal.
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“All the Light We Cannot See” is more than a thriller and less than great literature. As such, it is what the English would call “a good read.” Maybe Doerr could write great literature if he really tried. I would be happy if he did.
I’m not sure I will read a better novel this year than Anthony ­Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See.”
By the time the narrative finds Marie-Laure and Werner in the same German-occupied village in Brittany, a reader’s skepticism has been absolutely flattened by this novel’s ability to show that the improbable doesn’t just occur, it is the grace that allows us to survive the probable.
Werner’s experience at the school is only one of the many trials through which Mr. Doerr puts his characters in this surprisingly fresh and enveloping book. What’s unexpected about its impact is that the novel does not regard Europeans’ wartime experience in a new way. Instead, Mr. Doerr’s
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nuanced approach concentrates on the choices his characters make and on the souls that have been lost, both living and dead.
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Awards

National Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2014)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2016)
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Fiction — 2015)
Audie Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2015)
Alex Award (2015)
Ohioana Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2015)
Indies Choice Book Award (Winner — Adult Fiction — 2015)
Grand Canyon Reader Award (Nominee — Teen — 2017)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Runner-Up — Fiction — 2015)
Colorado Blue Spruce Award (Nominee — 2016)
Maine Readers' Choice Award (Finalist — 2015)
Golden Archer Award (Nominee — 2018)
Australian Book Industry Awards (Shortlist — 2015)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Literary Fiction — 2014)
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2015)
Great Reads from Great Places (Idaho — 2015, 2016, 2017)
Reading Olympics (High School — 2024)

Language

Original publication date

2014

ISBN

9781476746586
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