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A review by claudiamacpherson
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Daniel LeBlanc is a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, and builds scale models of his neighborhood so that his blind daughter, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, can learn to navigate her way around. Marie-Laure is fascinated by biology, especially snails, having spent her youth surrounded by the scientists of the museum. When the Germans move to occupy France in 1940, he is sent away with a stone--either an impressive forgery or the real "Sea of Flames," a giant diamond that is said to be cursed. Daniel and Marie-Laure flee to the small coastal village of Saint-Malo, where they live with Daniel's uncle, Etienne.
Meanwhile in Germany, Werner and Jutta Pfennig grow up in a children's home in a mining town. Werner has an aptitude for radios, and learns to repair them from practice on a cheap one he found broken in someone's trash. His skill leads him to be recruited to an elite political school, and eventually to a position in the German army.
We follow Marie-Laure and Werner though the war, as food becomes increasingly scarce and decisions increasingly difficult.
For me, the most interesting (and most difficult) part of this book was seeing how quickly Werner became a Nazi, and how difficult it would have been for him to question what he was forced into. Similarly, I enjoyed seeing Jutta's point of view at the end of the book, when she feels nervous and guilty and expects the French people to hate her or blame her for the horrors of the war. These perspectives help to humanize the German citizens form this time in a way that I think is important for understanding this period of history--and hopefully to learn from the mistakes of the past.
Meanwhile in Germany, Werner and Jutta Pfennig grow up in a children's home in a mining town. Werner has an aptitude for radios, and learns to repair them from practice on a cheap one he found broken in someone's trash. His skill leads him to be recruited to an elite political school, and eventually to a position in the German army.
We follow Marie-Laure and Werner though the war, as food becomes increasingly scarce and decisions increasingly difficult.
For me, the most interesting (and most difficult) part of this book was seeing how quickly Werner became a Nazi, and how difficult it would have been for him to question what he was forced into.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Xenophobia
Minor: Confinement, Excrement, Genocide, and Rape
This book is about World War II, so most of these tags are given. Most of the major atrocities of the war are only alluded to; we don't see much of that directly in the book. The violence that is described are not overly detailed or long. Almost all of these tags apply to Werner's passages.