Thursday 7 February 2019

Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book, National Book Award finalist, more than two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure 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.



Audible Audio, Unabridged, 17 pages
Published May 6th 2014 by Simon & Schuster Audio 
Genre: Historical Fiction
Kristine's Thoughts:

I am very picky when it comes to my audio books. I like to pick ones that are well rated because they are a little more time consuming and I don't want to waste my time on something bad. There are a few reasons why I decided to listen to All the Light We Cannot See. First of all, it has over seven hundred thousand reviews on Goodreads and is highly rated. Second, my sister and other half of this blog read it and loved it. Lastly, it is a WW11 historical fiction which I love.

I am speechless. I literally just finished listening to this book before sitting down to write this and I don't know what to say. It was amazing. I felt it to my core as I was listening. When it was nearing the end I actually found myself holding my breath. I did not want it to end.

I won't re-tell the story as it has been done a thousand times and there is no way I can do it justice. I'll just say that there are two distinct voices and point of views within the pages. Marie Laure and Werner were on opposite sides of the war and had totally different upbringings and struggles. Werner was an orphaned boy from Germany who was destined for the mines before his intellect and interest in radios changed his path and landed him in training with the Nazi Youth. Marie Laure was a blind girl from Paris who lived with her devoted father who tried his best to make her as independent as possible.

This book showcased the fact that not all things are black and white and that every person has a story. It was beautifully written and unique. I have read hundreds of WW11 fiction and this story is completely different than any I've read before. It was highly emotional and both the story and characters were extremely well developed.

I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said. This book is highly rated and for very good reason. It deserves to be. I am going to add one more great rating to the list. Everything about this book is going to stick with me for a very long time. I highly recommend it.


About the Author
Anthony Doerr is the author of five books, The Shell Collector , About Grace , Memory Wall , Four Seasons in Rome and All the Light We Cannot See . Doerr’s fiction has won four O. Henry Prizes and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Fiction. He has won the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, the Rome Prize, the Story Prize, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Award, and the Ohioana Book Award three times. Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho.
Connect with Anthony
 

2 comments:

  1. YES! This is one of my all-time favorite books. When I finished it, I remember going “wow” and then sitting in silence and staring at the cover. Great review!

    Aj @ Read All The Things!

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    Replies
    1. Right!!??!! I don't know why it took me so long to tackle it.

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