Saturday, February 14, 2015

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See

This story is beautifully written. Set in WWII in France, the story is told alternately by the two main characters and goes back and forth from their childhoods to the war. Marie-Laure has been blind since age six and her father is a locksmith for the Museum of Natural History in Paris. She tells part of the story. Werner, is a German orphan who has taught himself how to build and repair radios and is accepted into one of Hitler's youth schools. Other important characters include Marie-Laure's great uncle who has stayed inside his house after suffering PTSD during WWI and his housekeeper, who joins the French Resistance and gets Marie-Laure and her great uncle Etienne involved as well. There is also a rare diamond and a German soldier who is seeking it. We follow their stories and see the brief crossing of paths between Marie-Laure and Werner. Marie likes to read Jules Verne in braille to "feel the sentences hoist her up and carry her somewhere else." The story is sad and moving and just beautiful. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it.

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