Winner of the Pulitzer Prize A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book* A National Book Award finalist * From Anthony Doerr, the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning author of Cloud Cuckoo Land, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious 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 … 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.
Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Ten years in the writing, a National Book Award finalist, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).
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Beautiful story about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross in occupied France as both try to survive World War II. A must read!
This is without a doubt the best story I have read in many years. I couldn’t put it down and read it quickly, until I realized I only had a few pages left. That is when I slowed down to savor the whole beauty of what I had just read.
This is on my “Best Books” list. Read it and be a better person for it.
You learn about the war in a fictional way but it leaves you so sad. Well told.
a bit slow at first but overall liked it.
A different book on WWII
Incredible book set in the war years. It will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Wonderful book. Despite its length it goes quickly because you want to find out what happens to the wonderful characters embroiled in WWII – on both sides of the story. The story, beautifully written, builds up to their intersection.
Perfect verb and noun choices. Sentences that read like poetry (in the best way). Deep characters you will love. Realistic history brought to life. Oh, and a cursed diamond! Enjoy!
Very good. Enjoyed reading it.
Great book about WWII.
Great story.
A wonderful book that stays with you long after you finish the last page.
The countless stories emanating from the global experience of the Second World War have filled many a book and movie screen, and for those both fascinated and horrified by the time and its tragedies, every new tale brings a unique slant to even the most familiar of scenarios. All The Light We Cannot See does so with a detailed and powerful …
This was a great book. I had a hard time putting it down, and – even though it was over 500 pages – I finished it in a few days. Did I ignore a few house chores to read instead? Yes. Yes I did.
The story is about a young girl – Marie-Laure – from about the age of 6-16 who is blind and living in France (first Paris and then Saint Malo) …
Read this novel three times-
Great historical fiction
This is a great book for anyone, like me, who finds WWII fascinating but it is also notable for the way Antony Doerr draws attention to the senses. The way he concentrates on sound and touch really brings the story to life.
a wonderful book!
excellent book about the collateral damage done during WWII