Okay I’m a little late with this, everyone has probably read this gorgeous piece of work by now, but listen, I had to read it twice to make sure that the love I feel for this book is real.
If you know me even just a tiny bit, there’s a 99,9% chance that you know I am very fascinated by all things concerning the Second World War, so as soon as I saw this book late last year, I grabbed the Finnish translation and gobbled it up in two days. However I do think something always gets lost in translation, so I bought the English version as soon as I saw it in a bookstore during my recent visit to UK.
This review does not contain spoilers.
BOOK: All The Light We Cannot See
AUTHOR: Anthony Doerr
WON: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 2015
RATING: ★★★★★
LENGTH: 530 pages
TIME: a week
All The Light We Cannot See tells two separate stories, one of a French girl, Marie-Laure and the other of a German orphan, Werner, whose lives entwine during the German invasion in France. Not only does Doerr make an exceptional job at leading these two different stories, but he also excels at the art of making time jumps here and there in the novel. First the book gives a glimpse of where Werner and Marie-Laure are in 1944, but then goes back ten years to 1934 and tells the story from there, cutting to 1944 every now and then and eventually passing on all the way to 2014.
The book is rather “easy” to read, the chapters being short and the storytelling vivid. In the beginning of the story, where both Marie-Laure and Werner are still children Doerr’s vibrant language has the ability to really conjure the way children see the world, and how differently. Marie-Laure losing her vision is described in a hazy way, where things just happen in a blur, as you’d think a child would sense the situation to be.
Where Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris, Werner is an orphan living in a children’s home in Zollverein with his little sister Jutta. Once he finds a broken radio which he fixes and through the programs he and his sister dream of a better life somewhere far from where they live. For Werner the chance for that different life comes when his talent for fixing radios is discovered and soon he finds himself being schooled and trained to fight in the German flanks. Only it seems that Werner does not enjoy the nazi business at all.
The novel isn’t just about of how two people cross paths in the middle of the turmoil of the Second World War, it also tells the story of a small but very precious gemstone, even though the plot seems a little forced, like it’s there just for some additional drama, as if the war isn’t enough drama already.
That aside, All The Light We Cannot See is a page-turner; like I said, on my first read I took it all in in just a couple days. After a few written lines the words turn into a movie that plays in your head as you take in page after page. There is no way I could praise this book enough. It’s a crown jewel, delicate and moving. It had me thinking of what is right and what is wrong and whether it’s so black and white. It’s a very basic question but it’s always good to really sit and think about it.
There is, I believe, something this book can give to every reader. There is the alluring story itself, the almost philosophical issues the story evokes, the reflections on parenthood that Marie-Laure’s father stirs in his mind and Doerr’s gratifying way with words.
In general, All The Light We Cannot See is a heartbreaking novel woven together so beautifully that you’ll enjoy every moment of the reading experience, whether you’re laughing at the Saint-Malo resistance ladies’ plotting or crying at the experiences Werner goes through during his days in Schulpforta.
What I got out of this reading… Feelings, good and bad, tears of laughter and of sadness.
Would I recommend this? Yes, absolutely, to everyone who needs a good book to read on vacation or on a long train trip or a plane ride. This is the one you should definitely add to your bookshelves!
Have you read this book? How did you think of it? Do you completely disagree with me? Is there something more that you’d like to know? Comment your feelings down below, keep it nice.
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