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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Dragged on a bit at the start, but then I got pulled in and didn’t want it to end.
Wonderful stories of survival in the worst of times. Great characters and inspirational fathering of a blind child.
This was a beautiful story, well crafted to bring about a climax that will keep you reading until the very end. Speaking of the end, keep the tissues handy because no one survives the realities of war without suffering.
One of the best all time books I’ve ever read! Was sorry to be done with it & plan to read again!
Fascinating insight into life during WWII in Europe and the war from the perspective of two young people on opposite sides of a war. Unexpected turns, surprises, historical references, all well put together and thought provoking.
This book is about two young people during World War II. A young blind girl is left alone when her father and caregiver is arrested by the Gestapo. However, he has prepared her to take care of herself. A young man joins her and takes some of her father’s place. How they find their way through the dangers of occupied territory and how the boy …
To go from comfortable pre-WWII Paris and be totally turned upside-down by the horrors of war definitely would attack anybody’s comfort zone. To be totally blind and be thrust into that environment is beyond frightening. One of the great modern classics of our time. This story would also make a compelling movie which I hope to see happen in …
Very good book.
This was time travel but only to WWII. I enjoyed all aspects and want to read the next book.
So good.
Everyone.
One of the most beautifully imaginative and satisfying books I have ever read. Highly recommended.
I think it was beautifully written and riviting
Outstanding! Beautifully written, one of the best books I’ve read.
As the last page turned and the cover closed, I couldn’t help but feel satisfied. I thought of Fiddler on the Roof and the remarkable portrayal of a family’s trials faced when Russians forced the Jews to leave. How one Jewish daughter and one Russian soldier looked deeper than the political crisis tearing their world apart and fell in love.
In …
Wonderful writing by telling story from different character perspective and how their lives merge. Provides good insight into WW2 and the horrors of war. Excellent book!
Great book.
Couldn’t put the book down
One of the best books I’ve read this year. It does an amazing job of giving insight into the personal experiences of those living through the war years.
Overrated I have read many books about World War II. This book just goes on and can be confusing at times I just finished The Paris Library. It is historical novel. It is a much better book and the characters much more interesting. The author based them on actual people READ it.