Status
Available
Collection
Genres
Publication
Scribner (2017), Edition: Reprint, 560 pages
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)
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2014)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2016)
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Fiction — 2015)
Audie Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2015)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Finalist — 2015)
Alex Award (2015)
Ohioana Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 2015)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (Winner — 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)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Finalist — Fiction — 2015)
Golden Archer Award (Nominee — 2018)
Australian Book Industry Awards (Shortlist — 2015)
Idaho Book of the Year Award (Winner — 2014)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2014)
NPR: Books We Love (2014)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Literary Fiction — 2014)
The New York Times Best Books of the Year (Fiction — 2014)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (Fiction — 2014)
Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice (Literary)
Booklist Top of the List: Best of Editors' Choice (Adult Fiction — 2014)
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2015)
Great Reads from Great Places (Idaho — 2015, 2016, 2017)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Fiction — 2014)
Lariat Adult Fiction Reading List (Selection — 2015)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2014)
Reading Olympics (High School — 2024)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2014
Physical description
560 p.; 8 inches
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. Show Less
“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. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member brenzi
You know the kind of book: you get to the end of it, and you want to go back to the beginning and start over again? Uh-huh, that’s what I’m talking about. Anthony Doerr may have written the best book I will read this year. And the thing is, I finished it a few days ago and I can’t stop
"So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?"
Marie Laure LeBlanc is a blind twelve-year-old girl living in Paris with her father, the master of the locks at the Museum of Natural History, when the Germans seize control and begin their occupation of the country in 1940. They are forced to evacuate and make their way to her great uncle’s home in the sea side village of Saint-Malo. Her father carries with him the museum’s most prized and dangerous gem. He tries to make the world smaller for Marie Laure by building her a model, an exact replica of the town and by creating wooden puzzles for her to twist, turn and eventually crack open to reveal the surprise inside. (More about that in a bit.) Her natural curiosity and intelligence are fueled by her love for her father. And little by little she makes her way through Jules Vern’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
At the same time, in a German mining town three hundred miles northeast of Paris, seven-year-old orphan Werner Pfennig and his younger sister Jutta, are raised at Children’s House by the indomitable Frau Elena. In the land of ‘make-do’ she performs tiny miracles every day to keep her young charges healthy and productive. But Werner is an extremely bright and inquisitive child, and his interest in short wave radios and their transmissions allow him and Jutta to hear a Frenchman, talking about science. They are enthralled. At the same time Werner comes to the attention of authorities and that leads to his acceptance in the exclusive and brutal Hitler Youth Academy and eventually to the tracing of illegal radio transmissions for the Wehrmacht.
Doerr constructs his narrative in such a user friendly way that the pages flip effortlessly, each chapter only a page or two long, so that the 530 page book seems much, much shorter. As I read I was overcome by the beauty of the language and the intricate way Doerr allowed me to twist the puzzle that was the story’s plot, time and again, to reveal the surprise. Back and forth in time he led me until finally Marie Laure’s thread and Werner’s thread meet in August, 1944. Saint-Malo is fully occupied by the Germans but the allies are bombing the town and she can hear a German sergeant-major in the bottom floor of her great uncle’s house, hunting for the precious thing she has kept safe for several years. Gradually the tension that has been building for hundreds of pages comes to a brutal climax. But it’s the denouement that had me holding my breath because this author brilliantly continues the story through 2014.
Clear the boards and make room for a wonderful addition to the WWII literature because this is a keeper and very highly recommended.
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thinking about it and as time passes I can’t get over how wonderful, rich and satisfying this story is."So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?"
Marie Laure LeBlanc is a blind twelve-year-old girl living in Paris with her father, the master of the locks at the Museum of Natural History, when the Germans seize control and begin their occupation of the country in 1940. They are forced to evacuate and make their way to her great uncle’s home in the sea side village of Saint-Malo. Her father carries with him the museum’s most prized and dangerous gem. He tries to make the world smaller for Marie Laure by building her a model, an exact replica of the town and by creating wooden puzzles for her to twist, turn and eventually crack open to reveal the surprise inside. (More about that in a bit.) Her natural curiosity and intelligence are fueled by her love for her father. And little by little she makes her way through Jules Vern’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
At the same time, in a German mining town three hundred miles northeast of Paris, seven-year-old orphan Werner Pfennig and his younger sister Jutta, are raised at Children’s House by the indomitable Frau Elena. In the land of ‘make-do’ she performs tiny miracles every day to keep her young charges healthy and productive. But Werner is an extremely bright and inquisitive child, and his interest in short wave radios and their transmissions allow him and Jutta to hear a Frenchman, talking about science. They are enthralled. At the same time Werner comes to the attention of authorities and that leads to his acceptance in the exclusive and brutal Hitler Youth Academy and eventually to the tracing of illegal radio transmissions for the Wehrmacht.
Doerr constructs his narrative in such a user friendly way that the pages flip effortlessly, each chapter only a page or two long, so that the 530 page book seems much, much shorter. As I read I was overcome by the beauty of the language and the intricate way Doerr allowed me to twist the puzzle that was the story’s plot, time and again, to reveal the surprise. Back and forth in time he led me until finally Marie Laure’s thread and Werner’s thread meet in August, 1944. Saint-Malo is fully occupied by the Germans but the allies are bombing the town and she can hear a German sergeant-major in the bottom floor of her great uncle’s house, hunting for the precious thing she has kept safe for several years. Gradually the tension that has been building for hundreds of pages comes to a brutal climax. But it’s the denouement that had me holding my breath because this author brilliantly continues the story through 2014.
Clear the boards and make room for a wonderful addition to the WWII literature because this is a keeper and very highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member Whisper1
Rarely is there a book so well written as this. The crisp, clear images jump off the page into your heart. This is well deserving of the honors received. It is so beautiful that it is difficult to write a review that would do justice.
The setting is World War II. Marie Laurie is young and blind.
Enter the Nazi's, bent on finding the exquisite diamond, hunting down and imprisoning Marie Laurie's father. The builder of tiny cities for Marie Laurie, when he is forced to leave her, he hides the rare diamond inside a tiny replicate of the city.
With the background of the ever powerful Nazi regime, we learn in alternate chapters that a small boy, Werner, who is very talented in fixing radios, is forced into a Nazi training school for boys.
It is through the two children we feel the ever encroaching, invasively dangerous Nazi's who destroy all in their path. The beauty of the writing allows the reader to feel the panic of Werner as he watches the barbarity of actions performed at the expense of the boys who reside in the camp, and then, as Werner assists the Nazi's with radio transmissions to hunt down those they deem a potential threat.
As Marie Claire longs for news of her father, through her feelings and thoughts we learn of bombings, fire and the ability of the Nazi's to threaten and terrorize through intimidation. Slowly, with the stealth of a python snake, the Nazi's find their prey and slowly, at their will, squeeze and take breath, and life.
The book is three tiered, beginning with the treat of Nazi invasion, the actual invasion which strips people of their livelihood, their sanity and thiet lives, then the final chapters we watch as Hitler can no longer win and we see the desperation as all is crumbling away. As Hitler falls, those who remain are left to rebuild their lives.
Powerful in rendering emotion, location and the desperate need to live and hope that loved ones are still alive, this is a story that will remain long after the last word is read.
Excellent!!! FIVE STARS
The setting is World War II. Marie Laurie is young and blind.
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When Paris is overtaken by the Germans, she and her father flee to a walled in city and are housed with her uncle. The uncle is a neurotic recluse who never leaves the house, he is paralyzed by his memories. Her father was the keeper and maker of the keys at a natural history museum in Paris. When he flees, he takes with him a very rare jem. Three duplicate like jems are sent out of the museum. Each person carrying the jem has no knowledge of the validity of what they hold.Enter the Nazi's, bent on finding the exquisite diamond, hunting down and imprisoning Marie Laurie's father. The builder of tiny cities for Marie Laurie, when he is forced to leave her, he hides the rare diamond inside a tiny replicate of the city.
With the background of the ever powerful Nazi regime, we learn in alternate chapters that a small boy, Werner, who is very talented in fixing radios, is forced into a Nazi training school for boys.
It is through the two children we feel the ever encroaching, invasively dangerous Nazi's who destroy all in their path. The beauty of the writing allows the reader to feel the panic of Werner as he watches the barbarity of actions performed at the expense of the boys who reside in the camp, and then, as Werner assists the Nazi's with radio transmissions to hunt down those they deem a potential threat.
As Marie Claire longs for news of her father, through her feelings and thoughts we learn of bombings, fire and the ability of the Nazi's to threaten and terrorize through intimidation. Slowly, with the stealth of a python snake, the Nazi's find their prey and slowly, at their will, squeeze and take breath, and life.
The book is three tiered, beginning with the treat of Nazi invasion, the actual invasion which strips people of their livelihood, their sanity and thiet lives, then the final chapters we watch as Hitler can no longer win and we see the desperation as all is crumbling away. As Hitler falls, those who remain are left to rebuild their lives.
Powerful in rendering emotion, location and the desperate need to live and hope that loved ones are still alive, this is a story that will remain long after the last word is read.
Excellent!!! FIVE STARS
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LibraryThing member lit_chick
2014, Simon and Schuster Audio, Read by Zach Appleman
“You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history.” (Ch 30)
Young Marie-Laure, who lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of
In a mining town in Germany, Werner grows up with his younger sister, both orphans. He finds and is enchanted with a crude radio he finds, and will later become an expert at building and repairing the instruments – a talent which secures him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth. Participating in special assignments to track the resistance, Werner becomes increasingly aware of the human cost of his intelligence. Eventually, he will travel to Saint-Malo on assignment, where his story and Marie-Laure’s will converge.
All the Light We Cannot See is a remarkable read: as haunting and stark in its portrayal of the human costs of war, as it is beautiful in its portrayal of intimate relationships. I highly recommend!
“You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history.” (Ch 30)
Young Marie-Laure, who lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of
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Natural History where he works, goes blind when she is six, and her papa builds her a perfect miniature of their neighbourhood so she can memorize it and navigate her way home independently. When she is twelve and the Nazis occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo, where they will live with Etienne, her reclusive great uncle. With them, they carry with them what might be the museum’s most valuable – and most dangerous – jewel.In a mining town in Germany, Werner grows up with his younger sister, both orphans. He finds and is enchanted with a crude radio he finds, and will later become an expert at building and repairing the instruments – a talent which secures him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth. Participating in special assignments to track the resistance, Werner becomes increasingly aware of the human cost of his intelligence. Eventually, he will travel to Saint-Malo on assignment, where his story and Marie-Laure’s will converge.
All the Light We Cannot See is a remarkable read: as haunting and stark in its portrayal of the human costs of war, as it is beautiful in its portrayal of intimate relationships. I highly recommend!
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LibraryThing member cuentosalgernon
This novel is both a page-turner and an exquisite and well-written novel, something you don’t find too often. Throughout its over 500 pages it manages to engage you with its beautiful prose and imagination. It follows the story of Marie-Laure, a French blind girl, and Werner, a German orphan boy
This is the first book I’ve read by Anthony Doerr, but after the rewarding experience I’m looking forward to reading some more.
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who loves gadgets, a story spanning from 1934 until the present, flipping back and forth in each chapter. And as the reader suspects from the beginning, the lives of the two main characters finally cross, and they will find out that in fact their lives had also intertwined in the past through some old radio broadcasts crucial in Werner’s life. And although the war is the background for most of the novel, the story focuses in the characters and manages to flesh them out, not only Marie-Laure and Werner, but also quite a few of the characters around them: Marie-Laures’ father and great-uncle, the housekeeper, the nazi von Rumpel obsessed with finding a precious diamond… And I particularly enjoyed the wonderful use of Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”.This is the first book I’ve read by Anthony Doerr, but after the rewarding experience I’m looking forward to reading some more.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
A very nice book. Standard metaphors, (i.e. the blind seeing the most), are used to find the light in the darkness of WWII and its well known atrocities. Stolen youths, orphaned children, love despite all odds, and the survival instinct are standard themes, written about with an elegant prose.
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However, I think that the converging storyline structure was not well implemented and became confusing along the way, probably because there was jumping not only between characters, but also back and forth in time. I must admit to being bored and that it bogged down for quite a while in the middle. So overall, very nice is the best I can muster for this very popular novel. This one will probably do better as a film than as a novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member ursula
The author interweaves two people's lives, Werner (a German orphan) and Marie-Laure (a blind French girl), in this novel. From the first chapter, where we find both characters in the same German-occupied city in France under bombing by the Allies, we know that they will have some sort of
I think that based on story alone, this could have been a 5-star read for me. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I thought the writing was studied and overly-polished, which had me focusing more on that than the story. Partially this happened because I was extremely bored by the first third of the book. I understand the reasons for wanting to go back in time and give full portraits of both Marie-Laure and Werner, but I found it mostly tedious, particularly the chapters about Werner. He just wasn't very interesting to me, and I didn't feel like he came alive as a child. Marie-Laure's blindness was handled well, showing both her capacity for self-assurance and the unique vulnerabilities she had. The exact resolution of the story kept me guessing, which was nice.
It was definitely a real page-turner once I got past the boring beginning. However, I had to knock down the rating for that because even though it got a lot better, I found the beginning *very* yawn-inducing, to the point that I considered abandoning the book entirely.
Recommended for: fans of the slow burn, sentimental types, people who like the movie Titanic.
Quote: "Radio: it ties a million ears to a single mouth."
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interaction with each other. Doerr then takes us back into each of their earlier lives and leads us back to that point of intersection, and beyond.I think that based on story alone, this could have been a 5-star read for me. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I thought the writing was studied and overly-polished, which had me focusing more on that than the story. Partially this happened because I was extremely bored by the first third of the book. I understand the reasons for wanting to go back in time and give full portraits of both Marie-Laure and Werner, but I found it mostly tedious, particularly the chapters about Werner. He just wasn't very interesting to me, and I didn't feel like he came alive as a child. Marie-Laure's blindness was handled well, showing both her capacity for self-assurance and the unique vulnerabilities she had. The exact resolution of the story kept me guessing, which was nice.
It was definitely a real page-turner once I got past the boring beginning. However, I had to knock down the rating for that because even though it got a lot better, I found the beginning *very* yawn-inducing, to the point that I considered abandoning the book entirely.
Recommended for: fans of the slow burn, sentimental types, people who like the movie Titanic.
Quote: "Radio: it ties a million ears to a single mouth."
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LibraryThing member Cariola
I have to admit that it took me a long, long time to engage with this novel. The first half is incredibly slow-moving, and, while I did end up liking the book, it could have had the same effect if it had been about 150 pages shorter. In addition, while I love stories with multiple narrators, the
The novel's two main characters are Werner, a German orphan with a talent for radio electronics, and Marie-Laure, the blind daughter of a French museum's lock master, both of whom are about 13 years old when the chronological story begins. When Werner's aptitude is uncovered, he ids taken from the orphanage and his sister, Jutta) and placed in a Hitler Youth school where his talent will be developed for use in the war. Initially thrilled to have an opportunity better than working in the mines, Werner ignores the twinges of his conscience and follows all orders--even those that ultimately destroy his best friend.
When the Germans invade Paris, Marie-Laure and her father flee to the seaside town of Saint-Malo, where her reclusive great-uncle Etienne lives. Her father may carry with him the museum's most valuable jewel, a large diamond known as the Sea of Flames--or he may be carrying one of four replicas of the diamond. For me, the Saint-Malo chapters were the most engaging in the book, mainly because of the well-developed characters and relationships.
Into the mix comes a cancer-ridden German officer charged with finding and bringing back to Berlin the treasures of the France--including the Sea of Flames.
That's all I will say about the plot, aside from the fact that, as one would expect, these characters inevitably come face-to-face with one another. I might have rated this book a bit higher if my expectations had been a little lower, and if the exposition chapters hadn't been quite so plodding. Still, All the Light We Cannot See is a worthwhile and at times very moving book.
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use of multiple narrators AND switching back and forth in time made it unnecessarily convoluted. On the basis of comments from LT friends who said the book got much better after the first half or so, I stuck it out to the end. While I can't say that All the Light We Cannot See will be one of my top reads of the year, on the whole, I was glad that I stayed with it.The novel's two main characters are Werner, a German orphan with a talent for radio electronics, and Marie-Laure, the blind daughter of a French museum's lock master, both of whom are about 13 years old when the chronological story begins. When Werner's aptitude is uncovered, he ids taken from the orphanage and his sister, Jutta) and placed in a Hitler Youth school where his talent will be developed for use in the war. Initially thrilled to have an opportunity better than working in the mines, Werner ignores the twinges of his conscience and follows all orders--even those that ultimately destroy his best friend.
When the Germans invade Paris, Marie-Laure and her father flee to the seaside town of Saint-Malo, where her reclusive great-uncle Etienne lives. Her father may carry with him the museum's most valuable jewel, a large diamond known as the Sea of Flames--or he may be carrying one of four replicas of the diamond. For me, the Saint-Malo chapters were the most engaging in the book, mainly because of the well-developed characters and relationships.
Into the mix comes a cancer-ridden German officer charged with finding and bringing back to Berlin the treasures of the France--including the Sea of Flames.
That's all I will say about the plot, aside from the fact that, as one would expect, these characters inevitably come face-to-face with one another. I might have rated this book a bit higher if my expectations had been a little lower, and if the exposition chapters hadn't been quite so plodding. Still, All the Light We Cannot See is a worthwhile and at times very moving book.
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LibraryThing member neddludd
Possibly the most damning review of a book is to walk away from it before finishing. In this work, I made it to page 377 (of 530). Two factors induced me to cease reading. The book is incredibly repetitive; one wonders if the author is not trying to illuminate the predictable and ultimately boring
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functions we engage in day after day. The work is suffused with extreme gloom, as if it had a fatal disease. Each of the character's has their own cross to bear, and each must bear the load throughout the entire book--or at least until where I stopped caring. The randomness and brutality of the war engulfs all; but so does the First World War to a man who has become so fearful that he cannot leave his room. Another character is blind, while a third has an unexplained cancer. Readers glimpse the potential of these men and women, and watch as that potential is wasted in the evil that is the world at war. The occupation of France endured for four years, and readers feel as if they spent every day there. The Russian front is telescoped but is the scene of death after death after death. The main characters have no one with whom to communicate other than the readers, and it becomes tiresome and heavy lifting. The quality of the writing is fine; but even that annoys, since we experience scene after scene with only minor variations from prior encounters. I am unclear as to why this book was such a huge bestseller. Show Less
LibraryThing member tututhefirst
From the publisher: Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a German orphan,
Here is a war story told from the perspective of two young people - almost too young to be directly involved when the war begins. The blind french girl is on the one hand so dependent on others to show her the way -- at least until she memorizes the way on her own; the young German is so determined not to have to go down into the dark, claustrophic bowels of the earth as the miner his father did. He'll do anything to avoid that darkness.
Each is dealing with darkness from a different standpoint: he is trying to avoid darkness, and she is doomed to live within it. Both of them find light and life from music and from sound. She is evacuated to St Malo where she lives with an uncle who, although a recluse, is building and hiding radios. The German boy too, displays an expertise in building and operating radios, and eventually is rescued from having to go to the mines.
Doerr tells their stories, along with several auxiliary plot lines, in alternate chapters from each youth's point of view. The story is easy to follow, the tension builds quickly, and the inexorable march toward the inevitable makes this a true page turner.
In my case, I was able to "read" this book the same way Marie-Laure would have -- with my ears. The audio version, produced by Simon and Schuster, and and narrated by Zach Appelman, really enables the reader to experience life exactly as young Marie-Laure did. The descriptions of how she "saw" things, how she counted her steps, listened for creaking boards, and was able to tune into radio broadcasts was well portrayed, and perfect for the audio format. I am especially thankful that the producers did not attempt to articulate sounds Marie-Laure heard in her head. It was left to the reader's imagination to furnish that sensory experience.
I don't want to give away the ending of the story. It is realistic, beautiful, heart-rending. This is a book worth reading in any format. It's certainly the best 2014 Fiction I've read so far this yea
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destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father's life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in. Doerr's combination of soaring imagination and meticulous observation is electric, as Europe is engulfed by war and lives collide unpredictably.Here is a war story told from the perspective of two young people - almost too young to be directly involved when the war begins. The blind french girl is on the one hand so dependent on others to show her the way -- at least until she memorizes the way on her own; the young German is so determined not to have to go down into the dark, claustrophic bowels of the earth as the miner his father did. He'll do anything to avoid that darkness.
Each is dealing with darkness from a different standpoint: he is trying to avoid darkness, and she is doomed to live within it. Both of them find light and life from music and from sound. She is evacuated to St Malo where she lives with an uncle who, although a recluse, is building and hiding radios. The German boy too, displays an expertise in building and operating radios, and eventually is rescued from having to go to the mines.
Doerr tells their stories, along with several auxiliary plot lines, in alternate chapters from each youth's point of view. The story is easy to follow, the tension builds quickly, and the inexorable march toward the inevitable makes this a true page turner.
In my case, I was able to "read" this book the same way Marie-Laure would have -- with my ears. The audio version, produced by Simon and Schuster, and and narrated by Zach Appelman, really enables the reader to experience life exactly as young Marie-Laure did. The descriptions of how she "saw" things, how she counted her steps, listened for creaking boards, and was able to tune into radio broadcasts was well portrayed, and perfect for the audio format. I am especially thankful that the producers did not attempt to articulate sounds Marie-Laure heard in her head. It was left to the reader's imagination to furnish that sensory experience.
I don't want to give away the ending of the story. It is realistic, beautiful, heart-rending. This is a book worth reading in any format. It's certainly the best 2014 Fiction I've read so far this yea
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LibraryThing member BookBarmy
This WWII blockbuster opens with two riveting story lines. Werner, an orphan German teen is recruited by the Nazi’s for his invaluable radio engineering skills, and Marie-Laure, a blind French girl – separated from her adoring father in war-torn France. Right from the beginning, the reader
The novel also has some captivating scenes, all beautifully written. There’s Marie-Laure reading aloud from her braille edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, there’s the ominous agenda inside Werner’s exclusive Nazi training school, and then, if you’re like me, you’ll hold your breath as messages are passed along, hidden in freshly baked bread, and then secretly broadcast from a short-wave radio hidden in the attic of a crumbling house perched on the edge of the sea. Everything is there — all the elements of a well-written and exciting WWII adventure.
And so you settle in, cup of tea in hand and eagerly start reading…and reading…and reading — through 178 chapters. Yes, you read that right — 178 chapters!
Therein lies the first problem — 178 short chapters, many only a few pages, which jerk the reader back in forth in time, often with no clue to the year. The choppy chapters and abrupt time jumps are not only confusing, they actually prevented me from really sinking into the story. One reviewer, knowing that Mr. Doerr is a much better writer than this, surmised his editors insisted on shuffling the timeline. The format did feel gimmicky and like an afterthought. I’d go even further, I think those same editors also insisted on chopping the novel into short chapters to cater to today’s 140-character-tweet-text-snapchat-attention-span readers (That just wrote itself in the throes of my rant – like it?).
Now we come to the second problem, "All the Light We Cannot See" starts out beautifully written and compelling, but then it just seems to fall apart — rather it just never comes together. Werner’s and Marie-Laure’s paths, while coming teasingly close, never really converge. And when they do finally intertwine, they are only together for 10 pages towards the end. Then fast forward 30 years and the book ends not with a bang but with a whimper (my apologies to T. S. Eliot).
The novel won Pulitzer Prize, earned many glowing reviews and many weeks on the bestseller lists. Perhaps I missed something magical in my reading of this book. Maybe it was my mood. Whatever the reason, I was underwhelmed and sadly disappointed upon finishing this novel.
A digital review copy was provided by Scribner via NetGalley.
See all my book reviews at BookBarmydotcom.
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knows that the lives of these two potentially fascinating characters will intersect.The novel also has some captivating scenes, all beautifully written. There’s Marie-Laure reading aloud from her braille edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, there’s the ominous agenda inside Werner’s exclusive Nazi training school, and then, if you’re like me, you’ll hold your breath as messages are passed along, hidden in freshly baked bread, and then secretly broadcast from a short-wave radio hidden in the attic of a crumbling house perched on the edge of the sea. Everything is there — all the elements of a well-written and exciting WWII adventure.
And so you settle in, cup of tea in hand and eagerly start reading…and reading…and reading — through 178 chapters. Yes, you read that right — 178 chapters!
Therein lies the first problem — 178 short chapters, many only a few pages, which jerk the reader back in forth in time, often with no clue to the year. The choppy chapters and abrupt time jumps are not only confusing, they actually prevented me from really sinking into the story. One reviewer, knowing that Mr. Doerr is a much better writer than this, surmised his editors insisted on shuffling the timeline. The format did feel gimmicky and like an afterthought. I’d go even further, I think those same editors also insisted on chopping the novel into short chapters to cater to today’s 140-character-tweet-text-snapchat-attention-span readers (That just wrote itself in the throes of my rant – like it?).
Now we come to the second problem, "All the Light We Cannot See" starts out beautifully written and compelling, but then it just seems to fall apart — rather it just never comes together. Werner’s and Marie-Laure’s paths, while coming teasingly close, never really converge. And when they do finally intertwine, they are only together for 10 pages towards the end. Then fast forward 30 years and the book ends not with a bang but with a whimper (my apologies to T. S. Eliot).
The novel won Pulitzer Prize, earned many glowing reviews and many weeks on the bestseller lists. Perhaps I missed something magical in my reading of this book. Maybe it was my mood. Whatever the reason, I was underwhelmed and sadly disappointed upon finishing this novel.
A digital review copy was provided by Scribner via NetGalley.
See all my book reviews at BookBarmydotcom.
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LibraryThing member RandyMetcalfe
Marie-Laure is the young, blind daughter of the Master of Locks at the Museum of Natural History in pre-WWII Paris. Werner is an orphan growing up in a mining town in Germany. About 500 pages later their paths are going to cross in St. Malo on the coast of France. Meanwhile there are miles to go,
In its tone and tenor, this is really a YA novel. So it may be a bit surprising that it won the Pulitzer. It is written in a clear filmic style — short, one scene, chapters of about a page and a half in length. Then a quick cut to another character’s point of view. The tension remains high throughout. And you really can’t get bored. There isn’t time. But it is so self-consciously filmic — almost like it is really a “treatment” for a film, preferably directed by Spielberg — that you may find it tiring.
Of course just because this is a YA novel doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen. They do. And some of them are truly awful. But awful in a way that would really look good in a cinema. (That’s maybe too harsh; they would also look good on TV.) I longed for more seriousness, less contrivance of plot, less blatantly heart-tugging characters. But I suppose that would simply have been a different book. And the author would be in his rights to suggest that I ought to go read that one instead. Perhaps I will. And maybe you’ll join me. Because for now, despite the accolades, this one is not recommended.
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so to speak, and lots of twists. But the pages will turn, and quickly. So quickly that you’ll be surprised at how you’ve been swept along and swept up in the all too evident emotions of that most dangerous time.In its tone and tenor, this is really a YA novel. So it may be a bit surprising that it won the Pulitzer. It is written in a clear filmic style — short, one scene, chapters of about a page and a half in length. Then a quick cut to another character’s point of view. The tension remains high throughout. And you really can’t get bored. There isn’t time. But it is so self-consciously filmic — almost like it is really a “treatment” for a film, preferably directed by Spielberg — that you may find it tiring.
Of course just because this is a YA novel doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen. They do. And some of them are truly awful. But awful in a way that would really look good in a cinema. (That’s maybe too harsh; they would also look good on TV.) I longed for more seriousness, less contrivance of plot, less blatantly heart-tugging characters. But I suppose that would simply have been a different book. And the author would be in his rights to suggest that I ought to go read that one instead. Perhaps I will. And maybe you’ll join me. Because for now, despite the accolades, this one is not recommended.
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LibraryThing member oldblack
I decided to read this because (a) my boss recommended it, (b) it had a 4.3 star rating in LT. It just goes to show how different my tastes are than the average LT reader (and my boss!). I see no particular merit in this story, apart from the fact that it took me away from a mundane environment as
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I walked to work - for 15 hours. Obviously I had the audiobook version - and I had a few problems with the narrator, too. She was good at dramatising the text, and probably had a good French accent (I'm ignorant), but she spoke some English words in some pretty unusual ways! ("wrongly" I would have said, but I am not really confident enough of my own knowledge to be so bold as to say that). This seemed just like another war story to me (aren't we over that?), but with a rather hard to believe story & legend about a large gem added on top. Oh yes, and the blind girl factor - I'm guessing that's what appealed to the LT readers? I would have to say, however, that none of the characters was particularly well developed - this is almost entirely a plot-driven novel. And I'm more of a character person than a plot person. I like books about which others complain that the story doesn't go anywhere. I suppose the other possibly appealing aspect of this book is the way the author runs parallel stories and approaches the conclusion from different times in a way that reveals the story at an appropriate pace and with suitable mystery. The story is tied up at the end in a way that is probably appropriate to the rest of the book but I'm sure is also one reason for its high rating - people tend to hate stories having anything left unknown. Show Less
LibraryThing member mtbearded1
Having spent a great deal of time earning a PhD in 20th Century French Literature, a study that thrust me deeply into the politics of World War II France, I have trouble passing up any book that treats that period. I have met some of my favorite authors that way, Joanne Harris's Five Quarters of
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the Orange comes to mind. In All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr joins the group. This is a powerful novel, grabbing this reader's attention from the first and holding it all the way through the rather long novel. Not that it feels like a long novel, but it is a heavy book to hold for hours on end. The story of two children, a young German orphan and the blind daughter of a Parisian museum employee, travels back and forth across time and space as their individual stories develop, and eventually intertwine. The horror that was occupied France is fully present in this novel, but Doerr also makes us see that sometimes the Germans were victims as well. How can a country press its fifteen year old boys into military service? Heartily recommended to all who are drawn to World War II narratives, and to the awakening of young minds. Show Less
LibraryThing member jmchshannon
The historical details within All the Light We Cannot See are stunning in their exactness and the care with which Mr. Doerr uses them within his story. One could use the story in place of a map of Paris’ Fifth Arrondissement or the streets of Saint Malo because they are so meticulously described
In All the Light We Cannot See, Mr. Doerr takes his time telling Marie-Laure’s and Werner’s stories. They unfold slowly and methodically, carefully building setting, mood, and tone to weave the story around readers and fully ensnare them into its drama and tension, something he achieves with aplomb. Marie-Laure and Werner are two unfortunate souls who are tested and forged in the heat of war. Theirs is a powerful story in which the lines of right and wrong, guilt and innocence blur as readers get to know and understand them. All the Light We Cannot See is a story of perseverance, innocence lost, strengths found, and truths discovered. It leaves readers contemplative as to the intricacies and damage to mind, body, and soul war wreaks on people. More importantly, it leaves readers hopeful that even in the very worst of times, humanity’s innate goodness can and will prevail.
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and precise. Similarly, Mr. Doerr develops his characters so carefully and thoroughly that readers internalize their emotions. The growing mental trauma within Werner and Marie-Laure’s increased fears are particularly potent as the story progresses even though these changes occur slowly. However, this care and attention to detail makes the entire cast so realistic. Of greatest importance though is the fact that Mr. Doerr is mindful not to make this a story a condemnation of one side or the other. All of the characters, no matter how important or minor, are just victims of the circumstances and times in which they live.In All the Light We Cannot See, Mr. Doerr takes his time telling Marie-Laure’s and Werner’s stories. They unfold slowly and methodically, carefully building setting, mood, and tone to weave the story around readers and fully ensnare them into its drama and tension, something he achieves with aplomb. Marie-Laure and Werner are two unfortunate souls who are tested and forged in the heat of war. Theirs is a powerful story in which the lines of right and wrong, guilt and innocence blur as readers get to know and understand them. All the Light We Cannot See is a story of perseverance, innocence lost, strengths found, and truths discovered. It leaves readers contemplative as to the intricacies and damage to mind, body, and soul war wreaks on people. More importantly, it leaves readers hopeful that even in the very worst of times, humanity’s innate goodness can and will prevail.
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LibraryThing member TooBusyReading
When I thought the world didn't need any more WWII novels about loss and survivors, when I thought all that should be said had been said, along came this beautiful book.
The writing and the characters are wonderful and had depth. I even had sympathy for a young German soldier, seeing the world
There are orphans and good fathers, traitors, and a whole cast of characters that were occasionally hard to keep straight, but the payback was well worth the effort. Lives intersected, souls were bared, and bits of natural history added another interesting layer as did descriptions of city models.
Among other story lines, this is a story of a father's love for his daughter.
Yet another war story, but this one managed to put itself head and shoulders above so many others.
The writing and the characters are wonderful and had depth. I even had sympathy for a young German soldier, seeing the world
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through his eyes. I couldn't see the world through Marie-Laure's eyes because she was blind, but her descriptions of sounds, of what she noticed that most of us do not, was lyrical.There are orphans and good fathers, traitors, and a whole cast of characters that were occasionally hard to keep straight, but the payback was well worth the effort. Lives intersected, souls were bared, and bits of natural history added another interesting layer as did descriptions of city models.
Among other story lines, this is a story of a father's love for his daughter.
Yet another war story, but this one managed to put itself head and shoulders above so many others.
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LibraryThing member 2LZ
Many thanks to Netgalley.com for providing me with an advanced digital copy of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr in exchange for my honest review.
All the Light We Cannot See is an engaging WWII survival story. I wouldn't have thought it possible that I could feel empathy for a young
I had some issues with the book though. The ending was less than satisfying which is always an issue for me. I don't necessarily need the ending to be neatly resolved, but with so much time invested in the story and characters to then have a weak ending is disappointing. Additionally, I suggest that this novel be read as a physical book instead of on a digital book device. There were definite formatting errors that I hope were picked up in a final edit prior to release, but more concerning is that the story jumps around in time which was particularly confusing on my Kindle App. I would have much rather have had a physical book where I could flip back and become more easily adjusted to the differing time periods.
This would have been a five star review for me if the ending was better.
All the Light We Cannot See is an engaging WWII survival story. I wouldn't have thought it possible that I could feel empathy for a young
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orphan boy recruited to be a Nazi, but I did. That is to the credit of the author who is a gifted writer and who told a captivating, thought-provoking story. The author takes his time letting the reader get to know the young, Inquisitive, inventive Werner and his fear of dying in the mines like his father. This reader was conflicted by this character. His future and options were so limited, but becoming a Nazi just too heinous to accept. I loved Marie Laure who is blind, but has an awe-inspiring strength of character. Her interactions with her father, great uncle and housekeeper touched me.I had some issues with the book though. The ending was less than satisfying which is always an issue for me. I don't necessarily need the ending to be neatly resolved, but with so much time invested in the story and characters to then have a weak ending is disappointing. Additionally, I suggest that this novel be read as a physical book instead of on a digital book device. There were definite formatting errors that I hope were picked up in a final edit prior to release, but more concerning is that the story jumps around in time which was particularly confusing on my Kindle App. I would have much rather have had a physical book where I could flip back and become more easily adjusted to the differing time periods.
This would have been a five star review for me if the ending was better.
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LibraryThing member catzkc
I really thought this was going to be a 5 star book for me. But then again, my tastes tend to run counter to those of the award panels. At the very least, I think this is the first (and probably will be the only ever) Pulitzer Prize book I’ve managed to finish.
There are other books that have
The book could have been drastically improved by removing the entire plot device involving the stone. Really, WWII was bad enough without needing to throw in a jewel-hunting villain.
The one good thing this book has going for it is Wermer’s story. It is unfortunately unusual to have a book involve a German boy’s point of view, especially in the years leading up to the war. The author did a good job of showing how a boy at that time can be enfolded into the Nazi system, yet still allow us to empathize with him. I find that one of the most intriguing aspects to this part of history – how normal German people got caught up and swept along with the Nazi storm.
There are other books that have
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managed to more acutely describe the impact and horrors of the war on civilians. The author attempted to convey these, but there was only one scene where he was somewhat successful (Vienna). For the most part, I just kind of felt like so much of the dangers and daily hardships they endured were just kind of glossed over. So much of how he wrote it (at least everything Marie-Laure experienced) could fit right into a Disney movie.The book could have been drastically improved by removing the entire plot device involving the stone. Really, WWII was bad enough without needing to throw in a jewel-hunting villain.
The one good thing this book has going for it is Wermer’s story. It is unfortunately unusual to have a book involve a German boy’s point of view, especially in the years leading up to the war. The author did a good job of showing how a boy at that time can be enfolded into the Nazi system, yet still allow us to empathize with him. I find that one of the most intriguing aspects to this part of history – how normal German people got caught up and swept along with the Nazi storm.
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LibraryThing member snash
An excellent book about choices, about the lure of curiosity and learning to provide meaning, about the repercussions of horror as well as being a suspenseful story. The prose seemed a little sparse to me and it was bit less psychological than it could have been.
LibraryThing member khiemstra631
Here's the best book that I have read so far in 2015. It's set mostly at the end of World War II in occupied France. The book features a blind French girl and a German orphan who ends up fighting in the German army. Both characters basically alternate telling the story. Really fascinating!
LibraryThing member varwenea
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
In “All the Light We Cannot See”, we read of two young lives, Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig, from 1934 through 1944 and beyond. The young Marie-Laure is the blind daughter of a single dad, Daniel, living in
Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives are presented to the reader in a parallel format in alternating ‘chapters’, always in similar timeline. The convergence point is known from the start as author presented those in brief segments, interspersed with major portions of these youths’ growth. The outcome, including the extended outcome, however, was entirely unpredictable; it felt plausible, maybe even real, not at all contrived. Doerr doesn’t attempt to wrap everyone’s lives in gift wrap with a bow on top. In life, you win some, you lose some. Some questions are never fully answered. Some pains will never fully dissipate. Though the story is wrapped around fictional characters and a fictional diamond, the story is steeped in the historical realities of fleeing the cities, rations, communication controls, the brutal ‘liberation’/attack in German cities by the Russians, and the mental and physical torturing practiced by the Nazis. The treatment of the weak was particularly cruel to read. This book made me care about its fictional characters. Its writing is excellent – very well laid out, easily understood despite parallel stories and multiple time-jumps, and the words, those extra words in incomplete sentences that trigger a complete imagery. Yeah, it’s a pretty damn good book.
A chapter titled “The Simultaneity of Instants” (Pg 466,467) wonderfully tied all the parallel lives into a single continuous paragraph.
On History:
“You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history.”
On Entropy and the radical ethnic cleansing viewpoint:
“For Werner, doubts turn up regularly. Racial purity, political purity – Bastian speaks to a horror of any sort of corruption, and yet, Werner wonders in the dead of night, isn’t life a kind of corruption? A child is born, and the world sets in upon it. Taking things from it, stuffing things into it. Each bite of food, each particle of light entering the eye – the body can never be pure. But this is what the commandant insists upon, why the Reich measures their noses, clocks their hair color.
The entropy of a closed system never decreases.”
On Living:
“’Ready?’ He sounds like her father when he was about to say something silly. In her memory, Marie-Laure hears the two policemen: People have been arrested for less. And Madame Manec: Don’t you want to be alive before you die?”
And
“He says, ‘You are very brave.’
She lowers the bucket. ‘What is your name?’
He tells her. She says, ‘When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?’
He says, ‘Not in years. But today. Today maybe I did.”
On Cooking a Frog – in reference to the effect of an emerging oppressive government:
“Madame Manec snaps open the door of the icebox. Marie-Laure can hear her rummage through a drawer. A match flares; a cigarette lights. Soon enough a bowl of undercooked potatoes appears before Marie-Laure. She feels around the tabletop for a fork but finds none.
‘Do you know what happens, Etienne,’ says Madame Manec from the other side of the kitchen, ‘when you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water?’
‘You will tell us, I am sure.’
‘It jumps out. But do you know what happens when you put the frog in a pot of cool water and then slowly bring it to boil? You know what happens then?’
Marie-Laure waits. The potatoes steam.
Madame Manec says, ‘The frog cooks.’”
On Our Existence:
“We all come into existence as a single cell, smaller than a speck of dust. Much smaller. Divide. Multiply. Add and subtract. Matter changes hands, atoms flow in and out, molecules pivot, proteins stitch together, mitochondria send out their oxidative dictates; we begin as a microscopic electrical swarm. The lungs the brain the heart. Forty weeks later, six trillion cells get crushed in the vise of our mother’s birth canal and we howl. Then the world starts in on us.”
On the “Sea of Flames” diamond:
“It is cut, polished; for a breath, it passes between the hands of men.
Another hour, another day, another year. Lump of carbon no larger than a chestnut. Mantled with algae, bedecked with barnacles. Crawled over by snails. It stirs among the pebbles.”
In “All the Light We Cannot See”, we read of two young lives, Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig, from 1934 through 1944 and beyond. The young Marie-Laure is the blind daughter of a single dad, Daniel, living in
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Paris and eventually escaping to Saint Malo where her great-uncle, Etienne, lives when WWII starts. Werner is orphaned with a younger sister, Jutta, living in an orphanage in the coal-mining town of Zollverein. Werner leverages his intelligence to escape a coal-mining life and attend a political education institute; but from fire to frying pan, Werner becomes a soldier in WWII, tracking unauthorized radio transmissions. Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives are presented to the reader in a parallel format in alternating ‘chapters’, always in similar timeline. The convergence point is known from the start as author presented those in brief segments, interspersed with major portions of these youths’ growth. The outcome, including the extended outcome, however, was entirely unpredictable; it felt plausible, maybe even real, not at all contrived. Doerr doesn’t attempt to wrap everyone’s lives in gift wrap with a bow on top. In life, you win some, you lose some. Some questions are never fully answered. Some pains will never fully dissipate. Though the story is wrapped around fictional characters and a fictional diamond, the story is steeped in the historical realities of fleeing the cities, rations, communication controls, the brutal ‘liberation’/attack in German cities by the Russians, and the mental and physical torturing practiced by the Nazis. The treatment of the weak was particularly cruel to read. This book made me care about its fictional characters. Its writing is excellent – very well laid out, easily understood despite parallel stories and multiple time-jumps, and the words, those extra words in incomplete sentences that trigger a complete imagery. Yeah, it’s a pretty damn good book.
A chapter titled “The Simultaneity of Instants” (Pg 466,467) wonderfully tied all the parallel lives into a single continuous paragraph.
On History:
“You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history.”
On Entropy and the radical ethnic cleansing viewpoint:
“For Werner, doubts turn up regularly. Racial purity, political purity – Bastian speaks to a horror of any sort of corruption, and yet, Werner wonders in the dead of night, isn’t life a kind of corruption? A child is born, and the world sets in upon it. Taking things from it, stuffing things into it. Each bite of food, each particle of light entering the eye – the body can never be pure. But this is what the commandant insists upon, why the Reich measures their noses, clocks their hair color.
The entropy of a closed system never decreases.”
On Living:
“’Ready?’ He sounds like her father when he was about to say something silly. In her memory, Marie-Laure hears the two policemen: People have been arrested for less. And Madame Manec: Don’t you want to be alive before you die?”
And
“He says, ‘You are very brave.’
She lowers the bucket. ‘What is your name?’
He tells her. She says, ‘When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?’
He says, ‘Not in years. But today. Today maybe I did.”
On Cooking a Frog – in reference to the effect of an emerging oppressive government:
“Madame Manec snaps open the door of the icebox. Marie-Laure can hear her rummage through a drawer. A match flares; a cigarette lights. Soon enough a bowl of undercooked potatoes appears before Marie-Laure. She feels around the tabletop for a fork but finds none.
‘Do you know what happens, Etienne,’ says Madame Manec from the other side of the kitchen, ‘when you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water?’
‘You will tell us, I am sure.’
‘It jumps out. But do you know what happens when you put the frog in a pot of cool water and then slowly bring it to boil? You know what happens then?’
Marie-Laure waits. The potatoes steam.
Madame Manec says, ‘The frog cooks.’”
On Our Existence:
“We all come into existence as a single cell, smaller than a speck of dust. Much smaller. Divide. Multiply. Add and subtract. Matter changes hands, atoms flow in and out, molecules pivot, proteins stitch together, mitochondria send out their oxidative dictates; we begin as a microscopic electrical swarm. The lungs the brain the heart. Forty weeks later, six trillion cells get crushed in the vise of our mother’s birth canal and we howl. Then the world starts in on us.”
On the “Sea of Flames” diamond:
“It is cut, polished; for a breath, it passes between the hands of men.
Another hour, another day, another year. Lump of carbon no larger than a chestnut. Mantled with algae, bedecked with barnacles. Crawled over by snails. It stirs among the pebbles.”
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LibraryThing member tjsjohanna
The most intriguing thing about this novel is not the plot line, or the historical elements (though these are great) but all the layers Mr. Doerr uses. There are radios, and blindness, and myths, and models and museums - all used as real things but also suggesting symbolic meanings and connections.
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For instance, Marie Laure is physically blind, but many of the other characters are metaphorically blind - afraid to see what is really happening around them. One thing the author did so well was to create a sense of the madness of the war where reality and propaganda are clearly unrelated to each other. Like all great books, this one left me looking at the story from multiple angles, trying to capture all the different facets of this gem. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheBookJunky
This was a great read. Like the Jules Verne novel being read by the young heroine, the story whisks you away to a different world; just like those magic days in childhood of being transported by a story.
Anthony Doerr says of the title that “It’s… a metaphorical suggestion that there are
This book has ‘blockbuster movie’ written all over it. It’s tightly written and paced, and has all of the key elements for a gripping story. The peaceful childhoods (pre-war) of a German orphan boy and French half-orphan girl (who is blind to boot, just to increase the pathos and provide a hook for the title) are torn apart by World War II and they have to adapt to the new world of the Occupied / Occupier. There are villainous and inhuman bad guys (the Germans), oily French collaborators, heroic French resistance fighters, and a quest for a diamond / family / peace, all as part of the usual narrative arc of war stories. Peace, unsettled times, war, atrocities, who will live? Who will die? Will there be punishment or redemption?
The bonus is that this plot-driven novel is hugely enriched by Doerr’s graceful prose. It is the best of both, that rare combo of a great story and great writing.
(The book was provided as an Advanced Reading Copy from Scribner via NetGalley).
Anthony Doerr says of the title that “It’s… a metaphorical suggestion that there are
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countless invisible stories still buried within World War II — that stories of ordinary children, for example, are a kind of light we do not typically see. Ultimately, the title is intended as a suggestion that we spend too much time focussed on only a small slice of the spectrum of possibility.”This book has ‘blockbuster movie’ written all over it. It’s tightly written and paced, and has all of the key elements for a gripping story. The peaceful childhoods (pre-war) of a German orphan boy and French half-orphan girl (who is blind to boot, just to increase the pathos and provide a hook for the title) are torn apart by World War II and they have to adapt to the new world of the Occupied / Occupier. There are villainous and inhuman bad guys (the Germans), oily French collaborators, heroic French resistance fighters, and a quest for a diamond / family / peace, all as part of the usual narrative arc of war stories. Peace, unsettled times, war, atrocities, who will live? Who will die? Will there be punishment or redemption?
The bonus is that this plot-driven novel is hugely enriched by Doerr’s graceful prose. It is the best of both, that rare combo of a great story and great writing.
(The book was provided as an Advanced Reading Copy from Scribner via NetGalley).
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LibraryThing member ardvisoor
Some books has a characteristic taste. This is one of them.
Doerr mix the details with a poetic sensibility that long to the last page.This book finds its way into the reader heart and soul.
Doerr mix the details with a poetic sensibility that long to the last page.This book finds its way into the reader heart and soul.
LibraryThing member Schatje
With its examination of what war does to ordinary people, especially two children, this book has some heartbreaking scenes, but it is entirely absorbing, a wondrous read. In alternating chapters, the novel focuses on Werner Pfenning, a German orphan, and Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind girl living in
Werner is a science prodigy who proves especially gifted in his understanding of electrical circuits. This gift allows him to escape life in the coal mines and gets him into an elite Nazi school where he receives military training and advances his knowledge of radio mechanics. He becomes adept at finding the senders of illegal radio transmissions and so is sent by German army hierarchy to various parts of Europe, eventually arriving in St. Malo shortly after the D-Day invasions just as the siege of the town begins.
Marie-Laure is also a science prodigy of sorts; she becomes fascinated by marine life after being exposed to the displays at the Museum of Natural History where her father works and to books such as Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Charles Darwin’s Voyage of The Beagle. In 1940 when the Germans occupy Paris, she leaves the city with her father and travels to St. Malo to seek refuge with her great-uncle Etienne, a hermit suffering from shell shock from WWI. As he had done in Paris, Marie-Laure’s father builds a detailed scale model of St. Malo so she can learn to navigate the town which is her home for the duration of the war.
Anyone familiar with Nazi atrocities has asked him/herself how the German people could commit those acts. Werner’s story illustrates how many Germans had little choice. As an orphan he is destined for work in the coal mines, a fate he dreads since those mines claimed his father’s life. His intelligence wins him a coveted position at a school, but it becomes a hell of a different sort: “never has Werner felt part of something so single-minded” (139) where the boys are taught by a man “capable of severe and chronic violence” (168). There he is taught that, “’You will eat country and breathe nation’” (137). Werner is a curious boy who was first exposed to science through radio broadcasts from France and often recalls the broadcaster urging children to “Open your eyes . . . and see what you can with them before they close forever” (48). So “For Werner, doubts turn up regularly. Racial purity, political purity” (276). In the school, however, he is told that he must not question: “’minds are not to be trusted. Minds are always drifting toward ambiguity, toward questions, when what you really need is certainty. Purpose. Clarity. Do not trust your minds’” (263). The students are told, “’You will strip away your weakness . . . you will all surge in the same direction at the same pace toward the same cause’” (137) and are encouraged to identify the weakest amongst them for punishment or expulsion. Werner, above all else, fears being named the weakest and becoming one of “the old broken miners . . . waiting to die” (476), so he tries to forget his sister’s question, “’Is it right . . . to do something only because everyone else is doing it?’” (133), and does what he is told to do: “Werner laces his boots and sings the songs and marches the marches, acting less out of duty than out of a timeworn desire to be dutiful” (277). A friend summarizes Werner’s predicament: “’Your problem, Werner, . . . is that you still believe you own your life’” (223).
The characterization of Marie-Laure is equally interesting. She is shy but intelligent and never is she self-pitying. She has to learn to navigate through darkness, both literally and metaphorically, but does not let it circumscribe her existence; she is determined to conquer her fear and make a difference. She answers the question, “Don’t you want to be alive before you die?” (327) in the affirmative. One woman describes her as an “amazing child” (402) though Marie-Laure does not see herself that way: “’When I lost my sight, . . . people said I was brave. . . . But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life’” (469). Hers, like Werner’s, is a coming-of-age story in the most difficult of times. If there is a weakness in Marie-Laure’s characterization, it is that we see few flaws.
There are other characters that are either too good or too evil. Frederick, Werner’s friend at the school, is of the former category. Frederick “moves about as if in the grip of a dream . . . [his] eyes are both intense and vague” (184) and “He sees what other people don’t” (163). He is the one cadet who refuses to do as the commandant orders, his fate illustrating what happened to those who refused to behave like ostriches. Sergeant Major von Rumpel is of the latter category in that he has no redeeming qualities. In fulfilling his job, he is ruthless. He becomes the stereotype of a Nazi officer. To make matters worse, von Rumpel is involved in the search for a diamond, a sub-plot which is largely distracting and superfluous.
An element of the novel that deserves mention is the lyrical style employing numerous poetic devices and figures of speech. Alliteration is used: “Shearwaters skim the ramparts; sleeves of vapor enshroud the steeple” (409). Metaphors abound; bombs dropping are described as “A demonic horde. Upended sacks of beans. A hundred broken rosaries” (148). The occupation of St Malo is conveyed so effectively: “Silence is the fruit of the occupation; it hangs in branches, seeps from gutters. . . . So many windows are dark. It’s as if the city has become a library of books in an unknown language, the houses great shelves of illegible volumes, the lamps all extinguished” (347 – 348). Repetition such as “Fog on the sea, fog in the streets, fog in the mind” (288) describes setting, creates atmosphere, and reveals mood. Literary and Biblical allusions appear frequently, usually to develop theme: “’That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?’” (449).
The novel’s title refers to one of the themes. In one of the children’s science broadcasts, Werner hears, “The brain is locked in total darkness. . . It floats in a clear liquid inside the skull, never in the light. And yet the world it constructs in the mind is full of light” (47). The brain has power to create light in darkness, and in the novel characters are occasionally able to see goodness even in the darkest of times, to believe “that goodness, more than anything else, is what lasts” (492). The school Werner attends tries to snuff out his human decency but in the end it is recognized that “his soul glowed with some fundamental kindness” (515).
As a child, Werner learns that “the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, . . . mathematically, all of light is invisible” (53). Later, “Marie-Laure imagines the electromagnetic waves . . . flying invisibly . . . over the scarred and ever-shifting landscapes we call nations. And is it so hard to believe that souls might also travel those paths? . . . That great shuttles of souls might fly about, faded but audible if you listen closely enough? . . . the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it. Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world” (528 – 529). In this novel, the reader, like Werner constantly listening to radio waves, can hear two of the stories stored in the library of invisible light around us.
Despite its weaknesses, this book is a must-read. It will have the reader experiencing a gamut of emotions: sadness, anger, joy. It is a beautifully written story about people caught in a time when “history has become some nightmare” (284) and people’s potential is misused: “What you could be” (459).
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Paris. Werner is a science prodigy who proves especially gifted in his understanding of electrical circuits. This gift allows him to escape life in the coal mines and gets him into an elite Nazi school where he receives military training and advances his knowledge of radio mechanics. He becomes adept at finding the senders of illegal radio transmissions and so is sent by German army hierarchy to various parts of Europe, eventually arriving in St. Malo shortly after the D-Day invasions just as the siege of the town begins.
Marie-Laure is also a science prodigy of sorts; she becomes fascinated by marine life after being exposed to the displays at the Museum of Natural History where her father works and to books such as Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Charles Darwin’s Voyage of The Beagle. In 1940 when the Germans occupy Paris, she leaves the city with her father and travels to St. Malo to seek refuge with her great-uncle Etienne, a hermit suffering from shell shock from WWI. As he had done in Paris, Marie-Laure’s father builds a detailed scale model of St. Malo so she can learn to navigate the town which is her home for the duration of the war.
Anyone familiar with Nazi atrocities has asked him/herself how the German people could commit those acts. Werner’s story illustrates how many Germans had little choice. As an orphan he is destined for work in the coal mines, a fate he dreads since those mines claimed his father’s life. His intelligence wins him a coveted position at a school, but it becomes a hell of a different sort: “never has Werner felt part of something so single-minded” (139) where the boys are taught by a man “capable of severe and chronic violence” (168). There he is taught that, “’You will eat country and breathe nation’” (137). Werner is a curious boy who was first exposed to science through radio broadcasts from France and often recalls the broadcaster urging children to “Open your eyes . . . and see what you can with them before they close forever” (48). So “For Werner, doubts turn up regularly. Racial purity, political purity” (276). In the school, however, he is told that he must not question: “’minds are not to be trusted. Minds are always drifting toward ambiguity, toward questions, when what you really need is certainty. Purpose. Clarity. Do not trust your minds’” (263). The students are told, “’You will strip away your weakness . . . you will all surge in the same direction at the same pace toward the same cause’” (137) and are encouraged to identify the weakest amongst them for punishment or expulsion. Werner, above all else, fears being named the weakest and becoming one of “the old broken miners . . . waiting to die” (476), so he tries to forget his sister’s question, “’Is it right . . . to do something only because everyone else is doing it?’” (133), and does what he is told to do: “Werner laces his boots and sings the songs and marches the marches, acting less out of duty than out of a timeworn desire to be dutiful” (277). A friend summarizes Werner’s predicament: “’Your problem, Werner, . . . is that you still believe you own your life’” (223).
The characterization of Marie-Laure is equally interesting. She is shy but intelligent and never is she self-pitying. She has to learn to navigate through darkness, both literally and metaphorically, but does not let it circumscribe her existence; she is determined to conquer her fear and make a difference. She answers the question, “Don’t you want to be alive before you die?” (327) in the affirmative. One woman describes her as an “amazing child” (402) though Marie-Laure does not see herself that way: “’When I lost my sight, . . . people said I was brave. . . . But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life’” (469). Hers, like Werner’s, is a coming-of-age story in the most difficult of times. If there is a weakness in Marie-Laure’s characterization, it is that we see few flaws.
There are other characters that are either too good or too evil. Frederick, Werner’s friend at the school, is of the former category. Frederick “moves about as if in the grip of a dream . . . [his] eyes are both intense and vague” (184) and “He sees what other people don’t” (163). He is the one cadet who refuses to do as the commandant orders, his fate illustrating what happened to those who refused to behave like ostriches. Sergeant Major von Rumpel is of the latter category in that he has no redeeming qualities. In fulfilling his job, he is ruthless. He becomes the stereotype of a Nazi officer. To make matters worse, von Rumpel is involved in the search for a diamond, a sub-plot which is largely distracting and superfluous.
An element of the novel that deserves mention is the lyrical style employing numerous poetic devices and figures of speech. Alliteration is used: “Shearwaters skim the ramparts; sleeves of vapor enshroud the steeple” (409). Metaphors abound; bombs dropping are described as “A demonic horde. Upended sacks of beans. A hundred broken rosaries” (148). The occupation of St Malo is conveyed so effectively: “Silence is the fruit of the occupation; it hangs in branches, seeps from gutters. . . . So many windows are dark. It’s as if the city has become a library of books in an unknown language, the houses great shelves of illegible volumes, the lamps all extinguished” (347 – 348). Repetition such as “Fog on the sea, fog in the streets, fog in the mind” (288) describes setting, creates atmosphere, and reveals mood. Literary and Biblical allusions appear frequently, usually to develop theme: “’That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who can find it out?’” (449).
The novel’s title refers to one of the themes. In one of the children’s science broadcasts, Werner hears, “The brain is locked in total darkness. . . It floats in a clear liquid inside the skull, never in the light. And yet the world it constructs in the mind is full of light” (47). The brain has power to create light in darkness, and in the novel characters are occasionally able to see goodness even in the darkest of times, to believe “that goodness, more than anything else, is what lasts” (492). The school Werner attends tries to snuff out his human decency but in the end it is recognized that “his soul glowed with some fundamental kindness” (515).
As a child, Werner learns that “the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really, . . . mathematically, all of light is invisible” (53). Later, “Marie-Laure imagines the electromagnetic waves . . . flying invisibly . . . over the scarred and ever-shifting landscapes we call nations. And is it so hard to believe that souls might also travel those paths? . . . That great shuttles of souls might fly about, faded but audible if you listen closely enough? . . . the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it. Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world” (528 – 529). In this novel, the reader, like Werner constantly listening to radio waves, can hear two of the stories stored in the library of invisible light around us.
Despite its weaknesses, this book is a must-read. It will have the reader experiencing a gamut of emotions: sadness, anger, joy. It is a beautifully written story about people caught in a time when “history has become some nightmare” (284) and people’s potential is misused: “What you could be” (459).
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LibraryThing member Limelite
Here is a novel that reminds us why fiction and literature are vital to humanity.
All the Light We Cannot See is a profound and poignant study of the tests, triumphs, and also the destruction of the human soul under grim persecution perpetrated by the Nazis. Most horrifying is to read how their
Overriding all, Doerr builds an atmosphere of ratcheting tension and impending doom followed by their inevitable realization that makes the reader want to turn away, avert the eyes. Even though the book is beautifully written, often lyrical, full of artistry when manipulating time and chronology, masterful in how ultra-short chapters are counterpoised against writing that slows down action to its minutest breath, it is primarily an important book that should and must be read.
At the end of the novel, years after the horror of war is over and as she is nearing the end of a long life, Marie-Laure muses while sitting on a Paris park bench next to her 12-year-old grandson. "Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world."
Without books, without readers, thus we forget.
All the Light We Cannot See is a profound and poignant study of the tests, triumphs, and also the destruction of the human soul under grim persecution perpetrated by the Nazis. Most horrifying is to read how their
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indifferent brutality was applied alike to their own Aryan children as it was to their French enemies, and (to them) the insignificant Jews. Beneath the cruel heel of the hobnailed boot, Nazis indiscriminately crushed opposition, individuality, and independence real and imagined.Overriding all, Doerr builds an atmosphere of ratcheting tension and impending doom followed by their inevitable realization that makes the reader want to turn away, avert the eyes. Even though the book is beautifully written, often lyrical, full of artistry when manipulating time and chronology, masterful in how ultra-short chapters are counterpoised against writing that slows down action to its minutest breath, it is primarily an important book that should and must be read.
At the end of the novel, years after the horror of war is over and as she is nearing the end of a long life, Marie-Laure muses while sitting on a Paris park bench next to her 12-year-old grandson. "Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world."
Without books, without readers, thus we forget.
Show Less
Pages
560