Book Review- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

 

All the light we cannot see (pic internet)

This book was introduced to me by the-then American President Barack Obama through his tweet in 2015 wherein he spoke of it as the book on realism. The book is from the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning author Anthony Doerr.

This historical fiction story occurs in Europe — in three locations, mainly — Hitler's Germany, Paris, and the walled seaside town of Saint-Malo in Brittany, from the mid-1930s to the roaring and murderous years of World War II.

It is an anecdote about a blind French girl, Marie-Laure who is the daughter of a master locksmith at the Natural History Museum in Paris, and a German boy, Werner Pfenning from the mining town of Zollverein, and how their paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Their lives are drawn against the brewing conflict, which will soon engulf not only France and Germany but most of the world - the second World War.

Both Marie and Werner are sympathetic characters. Marie-Laure goes blind in the second chapter and spends the advent of the book becoming used to her new situation (mostly with the help of her father, who designs elaborate puzzles for her to solve).

Werner grows up in an industrial town hit by the depression, amidst the rise of the brownshirts; his only real companion is his sister, Jutta, and his only solace is the radio - which Werner knows how to operate and fix instinctively, and to which they both listen at night.

Doerr's chapters are short and readable, and often contain pleasant nuggets of prose that was carefully thought out. To maintain suspense, he switches both between perspectives and periods. Various parts of the book are set in different years, mostly non-chronologically, and are chapters alternating between different characters.

This book captivated me for 2 days and after finishing the read left me wondering that the world is grey and that twinkling lights of hope and belief are providing it with all the colors. To live and see all this light we have to let go of the darkness within.

Quotes I liked most from this book

“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”

“How do you ever know for certain that you are doing the right thing?”

“A real diamond is never perfect.”

“Is it right to do something only because everyone else is doing it?”

“Things hardly ever work on the first try. We’ll make another, a better one.”