All the Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See
By Anthony Doerr
Scribner 2014
Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller

This is a tale of two very different children growing up at the same time in very different places. Marie-Laure lives in France with her father. He works at the Museum of Natural History as the master of the locks. When Marie-Laure is six, she goes blind. Her father builds her a perfect miniature model of their neighbourhood so she can walk with her fingers and by doing so, learn to walk around on her own. When Marie-Laure turns twelve the Nazis are moving into Paris. The museum director calls several staff, including Marie-Laure’s father, to his office and request they flee Paris. He asks that they bring with them a very important museum treasure, the sea of flames. They have made three replicas and one real one. None will know who has the real one. But they cannot let it fall into the hands of the Nazis.

Werner grows up in Germany at an orphanage with his sister Jutta. Werner is very intelligent and can manage to fix, or make just about anything. The Hitler youth take notice of Werner and send him to a very special school to train him for the army where he works to locate the hiding places of the resistance. The unfolding story brings these two characters to the same place at the same time, at the end of a war when everything seems to fall apart.

This book was lovely to read. It casted a spell that I was gladly caught in it. I found the words conjured an image so easily that you were transported to Saint-Malo so you could practically smell the ocean. The characters were so well developed they were almost real. Each of them were dear to me, and I hated to see any of them go through such atrocities. Once thing that I loved was that many character seemed to have a trial that they went through, and Doerr writes such brave characters they face their challenges head on. Including the characters we don’t love. This made me really connect with each character, we can see their flaws and they accept them and do their best to move forward. However, the language is very vivid almost to a fault. It was very descriptive, feeling overwritten and it made the book unnecessarily long.

I found Werner’s struggle to be very realistic. It felt like that is what would have happened to most people. Caught between what they should do, and what was right. Being a good person versus being what your superiors wanted you to be. I can’t tell you which side of Werner won out, that would ruin it!

In the end I did really enjoy this book. I thought that it was VERY hyped up. Yes, it was good but it felt long and dawn out. However, it was a good read and I really did like it. There were times when things were getting very suspenseful in the book and I was very engrossed and that it what was most memorable about this book. As well as the very memorable characters.

We went to a little tea place where I live, we go every year for their Christmas high tea. We normally have some left overs because there is just too much! This year we came hungry and there were none. So I bought a few extra scones and lemon tarts and enjoyed them at home. 

My Verdict: Read it!

If you liked this then try:
Sarah’s Key
The Light Between Oceans
The Book Thief