My Sunday Book Review is on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel – All The Light We Cannot See. I’ve had this book on my shelves for over a year now and so glad I took it with me on vacation. I was a bit apprehensive to read at first because I wondered how a big book with well over 500 pages would keep my attention, but it surely did. With over 24,000 reviews averaging just over 4 1/2 stars, it seems I’m not the only one who loved this story.
Blurb:
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, 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.
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. 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, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.
My 5 Star Review:
This story takes place during the early years leading up to World War II, through the war years when France becomes occupied by the Nazis. We are introduced into the lives of the main characters – Marie-Laure, a young blind girl living with her father in Paris, and young Werner, a young German boy fascinated by radio communications, fixings radios as a hobby.
Marie-Laure’s father is the keeper of the keys for the National Museum in Paris. He smokes a lot, thinks a lot, loves his daughter a lot, and is brilliant at creating replica models. He creates a model of the neighborhood and partial city in miniature form so his daughter can feel with her hands how to get about town with her cane.
In another country, young Werner lives with his sister Jutta, at a small orphanage, and his fascination with putting radios together from collecting small parts ultimately leads to a Hitler Youth organizer discovering his talents and recruiting him to the program to work on electronic communications. Werner is a sensitive boy whose fascination with radios has more to do with wanting to learn what is going on in the world rather than having any interest to become a Nazi.
As the war escalates, Marie-Laure and her father flee to Saint-Malo to stay with an estranged uncle to escape occupied Paris. Once there, her father builds a new model layout of the town for ML to familiarize herself in her new surroundings, and inside that tiny model is where he chose to hide the sought after Sea of Flames diamond he was commissioned to deliver for the museum when he fled from Paris. The stone has a legend and curse attached to it and it brings an interesting new element to the story.
When ML’s father sets out to deliver a message back to Paris, he never returns, and his daughter remains with her uncle and Madame Manec, who looks after the house and who later joins the resistance. Eventually, ML receives some letters from her father, beautifully written letters disguising the truth of his upcoming demise. The story continues with how Marie-Laure manages to survive despite near freezing and starvation and being sought out by the Nazis, while Werner being groomed to become a soldier endures despite the evil and torture he sees among his own people, numbing him to human emotion and humiliation, knowing he can’t succumb to that evil that breeds around him. Werner is almost shocked at what he has become part of and tends to live in his mind, talking to himself, a poignant line “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
Meanwhile, as occupation grows into Saint-Malo, Marie-Laure becomes privy to Mme Manec’s secret meetings as she becomes part of the resistance, becoming bolder herself.
This book is full of beautiful metaphors on life as seen through the eyes of these innocent children growing up in a world that is changing around them. The author has done a fabulous job of evoking all the thought and emotion these characters take on, striking the heart of our own emotions. The book is written in a clever way – in bite sized chapters with no more than 4 pages in each chapter, alternating between the two separate lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, and eventually connecting them much later in the book.
Personally, I’ve never read a book like this one. There is so much to cover with layers of brilliant prose, sometimes quite poetic by this talented author. Many pages per chapter are unnecessary because the storyline is perfectly painted into our imaginations. Aptly titled, for the story is darkness with brilliant moments of light acknowledging the brighter moments of thought and memories by the two main characters.
Definitely a book that will stay with me for some time.
DGKayewriter.com 
Debby, thank you so much for this superb review … allowing me to revisit one of my favourite books. I promise you it is one that will always stay with you. I can see how this has touched your heart, reached into your soul. As you say, the writing is exquisite, so skilled! Did you find it hard to settle on your next book after this one?
Hope Spring has found its way to you and wishing you a lovely Sunday! Hugs xx
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Thanks so much Annika. So happy to hear you’ve read it. I actually read 12 books while away and wrote reviews in draft. I’m posting them weekly here and honestly I don’t remember in what order I read them, lol. 🙂 ❤
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Your glowing review makes this sound like a must read, Debby. Thanks for the recommendation. Another to add to the list.
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Thanks Norah. A definite 2 thumbs up! 🙂
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Thanks for this review, Debby. I read another wonderful review for this book somewhere. It sounds like a must read.
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A beautiful and sad story with gorgeous writing. 🙂
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Wow. Sounds fascinating. No wonder it’s a winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
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It took me a few pages to get into it, but then I was hooked. 🙂
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This sounds like a beautiful poignant story that will seer into one’s mind and soul. Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Debby. I have been contemplating purchasing this book for quite some time each occasion I see it online. Now I will definitely put it on my TBR list. Hugs xx
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Happy to enlighten you Janice ❤ xx
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How have I never heard of this book? I’m checking it out. Thanks, Deb.
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Welcome Jacqui 🙂
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I have this book Deb but it has been sitting by my bedside for two years. I tried to read it twice but couldn’t proceed beyond 40 pages, it couldn’t hold my attention. Kudos to you for completing it! 🙂
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I felt the same way honestly, til I reach near 100 pages. I persisted and glad I did because in the beginning I couldn’t figure the story and the link between characters. It came together beautifully 🙂
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Hi Debbie,
I too read this book several years ago, and I was intrigued by the dual plots (stories). Anthony Doerr could have used just one and the book would have been great. This book deserves the category of classic literature. A must-read for novice writers because you learn style and character voice. It is an excellent example of showing and not telling. Thanks for sharing your review.
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Hi Chuck! Thanks so much to adding more value to my review. I totally agree! 🙂 ❤
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Thank you for reviewing this book. The title and cover alone are arresting.
Like you, I try to review books that deserve no less than 5 stars. I would probably stop reading a book of 3-star quality. Again, thanks!
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Thanks Marian. It seems we are on the same page – lol, no pun intended. 🙂
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Thanks, Debby. It sounds like something I’d surely enjoy, and I’m sure I’ve seen it mentioned before. I’ll go check it out. All the best!
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Great Olga. So glad that I could enlighten you on this one. 🙂 x
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Wonderful review Debby and sounds like an amazing book to read… will put on my next Amazon run. Will share to MeWe later as seems to be having a funny turn at the moment.. ♥♥
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Thanks bunches Sal. I would have thought you may have already read it. Glad I could pull one over you, lol. Oh ya, I know about MeWe, it hasn’t let me on the page for 2 hours now! ❤
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This sounds fascinating. Great review Debby, like you the length kind of scares me but if it’s that good it will be worth it.
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Thanks Marje. The chapters were mostly 2 and 3 pages long which made it easy to read in bite sized chunks. 🙂 x
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This sounds like an amazing book, Deb. Thanks for sharing your thoughtful review! I’m more likely to try it based on your recommendation. I’ve read many classics and long books but not many set in WWII. The title is brilliant.
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So glad my review inspired you Lis. I try to pull out the outstanding points of a book, with my spin on it. I admit, the size of the book was intimidating but I was curious to read what makes a Purlitzer worthy book and I could see why. The writing is gorgeous. ❤
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It was touching to read your review, Debby, of All The Light I Cannot See. It opened up my memory and made me realize how close to reality fiction is. Makes me want to re-read it. ❤
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Thanks Carol. I can certainly understand your wanting to read it again. It’s that kind of a book. 😉 ❤
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Hands down, this is in my top 20 favorite books ever. The writing just makes me melt, and the story is achingly sad. Haunting and brilliant and masterful. Love your review!
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Thank you Kate for adding to the review. I’m happy to hear we felt the same way about this yes, absolutely haunting, yet beautiful book. 😉 x
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Wow, Debby! This book truly seems to be worth the prize and a read! Thank you for the detailed description. I can totally “see” why this title is so perfect for the storyline. A lot happening in the book, but by keeping the chapters short, the author did it justice, I think. I’m glad you had time to read it in Mexico. Over 24,000 reviews. That’s insane! Very popular, indeed. I’d love to read it one day.
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Thanks Liesbet. I purchased the book in paperback. Honestly, if I hadn’t flipped through it to see the chapters broken down into bite-sized, I may have put it down. I get anxiety reading 500 page books, lol. 😉
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