All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I was so nervous that this book was going to be underwhelming since it was getting almost too much attention and was on every "books to read in book club" list but it was so amazing!! Definitely one of the best books I've read in a while.
Although the beginning was a bit slow, I was captivated the entire time by the different characters that were introduced as well as the story line. The fact that it slowly wove itself together so that almost all the characters were connected was an amazing way of writing it. It was difficult to put it down because I just wanted to know what happened next.
I also loved the imagery and the way Doerr explained the characters' thoughts. In this time of war, it's so difficult to determine who is good and who is bad, who to trust and what you are actually fighting for. The fact that the characters would often remember their younger, happier days before the war by almost reliving them showed how much they needed to escape what they were currently living through.
I would absolutely recommend this book!
Synopsis: Marie-Laure, a young blind girl, lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. 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, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.