16h 2m
American English language
Published by Simon & Schuster Audio.
All the Light We Cannot See is a 2014 war novel written by American author Anthony Doerr. Set in World War II, the novel centers on two characters: Marie-Laure Leblanc, a blind French girl who takes refuge in her uncle's house in Saint-Malo after Paris is stormed by Nazi Germany, and Werner Pfennig, a bright German boy who gets accepted into a military school because of his skills in radio technology before being sent to the military. The novel is written in a poetic style and switches between Marie-Laure's story and Werner's story almost every chapter, both of which parallel each other. The narrative has a nonlinear structure, flashing between the Battle of Saint-Malo and the events leading up to it. The story has themes of morality such as the dangers of possession and the nature of sacrifice. It also portrays fascination with science and nature. Doerr's first inspiration came …
All the Light We Cannot See is a 2014 war novel written by American author Anthony Doerr. Set in World War II, the novel centers on two characters: Marie-Laure Leblanc, a blind French girl who takes refuge in her uncle's house in Saint-Malo after Paris is stormed by Nazi Germany, and Werner Pfennig, a bright German boy who gets accepted into a military school because of his skills in radio technology before being sent to the military. The novel is written in a poetic style and switches between Marie-Laure's story and Werner's story almost every chapter, both of which parallel each other. The narrative has a nonlinear structure, flashing between the Battle of Saint-Malo and the events leading up to it. The story has themes of morality such as the dangers of possession and the nature of sacrifice. It also portrays fascination with science and nature. Doerr's first inspiration came from a 2004 train ride, in which he witnessed a man getting angry over his phone call cutting out. Doerr felt that the man was unappreciative of the "miracle" of being able to communicate across long distances. He decided to set the novel in World War II with a focus on the Battle of Saint-Malo after a book trip to Saint-Malo in 2005. The novel was published by Scribner on May 6, 2014, to commercial and critical success. It was on the New York Times Best Seller list for over 200 weeks and ultimately reached over 15 million sales. It was considered by several publications to be among the best books of 2014 and has won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. A television adaptation produced by Netflix and 21 Laps Entertainment was announced in 2019.
I went into reading this without having any idea what it was about. I was dismayed that it was about war initially, but by the end, I realized that it was a story of survival, joy, and hope.
This book is... fiction, so while it may convey some emotion some people felt surviving World War II, it's difficult to know, because Doerr removed the anchor to reality in order to accommodate a too-precious dollop of narrative parallelism.
It's difficult to know, because many people who went through those times wouldn't talk about them. Toward the end, did starvation and stress wear people down into mad vegetables? Did people who compromised their ethics and ideals, in order to survive, truly question their decisions and feel guilt over what they did, like everyone in this book seems to, or did they rationalize it away like a normal person? It's unsatisfying, because it's difficult to know.
Without a doubt, this book will stay with me for a long, long time.
It's the only book I can remember reading where it isn't the characters, the plot, or the setting that really matter. What matters - what resonates - are the words. The language - its idiosyncrasies, its surprises - is what makes this book an all-time favorite for me.
Equal parts tragic and uplifting, it makes you believe in the best of humanity even as you things fall apart around the book's main characters.
Utterly brilliant.
Throughly enjoyed reading this. Well paced. Interesting characters. And frequently I'd come across a chapter or paragraph and think "wow, that was really well written", in a way that envelopes you and warms you with words. Especially surprising considering the content (WWII)
