All the Light We Cannot See
* COMING IN NOVEMBER AS A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES--from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti * Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book 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. Doerr's "stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors" (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer "whose sentences never fail to thrill" (Los Angeles Times).
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Community Reviews
I wonder if I'm the only one who doesn't find this to be that interesting. I think I'm gonna send this one back to the library. I give up. Maybe I'll just watch the series instead. Decisions, decisions.
DNF @ 46%.
DNF @ 46%.
A book club book. Only deference to the discussion with my fellow book clubbers and the gentle prodding of a friend got me through this tedious work. And it was tedious. Not so much bad as just bland, like a poor cut of meat that has been over-salted to cover up the deficiencies. I'm usually a fan of intricate, flowery writing - having often said that I can be pulled along with either an intriguing plot or beautiful words - but Doerr's text was more convoluted and tortuous than delightfully intricate or deviously labyrinthine. The characters felt empty and lacked the substantive development that being in such situations should elicit. Even the settings felt like overly sweet dressing used to cover up the lack of depth in the characters. Three uninspired plotlines and a jumbled, aimless timeline (perhaps Doerr dropped the manuscript on the way to the publishers and didn't get it back into the correct order?) made this just...uninteresting. Not my cup of tea.
A World War II historical fiction. Writing was beautiful and complex. This book was too heavy for my interest -- the immense death/destruction/disregard for human life at this time is disturbing. The story never went anywhere for me. The story follows both a young French girl and a young German boy in parallel thru the war. There wasn't much to be hopeful for in this book. I am a very casual reader and found the timeline skipping, parallel storylines for the boy vs girl difficult to follow. Might be better suited for a proper literary fan, not a casual/fun easy-read nor is an uplifting story.
This one was fantastic. It’s told with multiple POVs. We mainly see the story from Marie-Laure, a blind Parisian girl, and Werner, a German boy with a heart that doesn’t belong in the Hitler Youth.
I loved how each chapter was named. You don’t often see that anymore. Many of them created a greater anticipation of the chapter. The short chapters along with beautiful story telling made the book move quickly. It was an emotional read.
Definitely recommend especially if you like historical fiction!
I loved how each chapter was named. You don’t often see that anymore. Many of them created a greater anticipation of the chapter. The short chapters along with beautiful story telling made the book move quickly. It was an emotional read.
Definitely recommend especially if you like historical fiction!
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