Skip to main content

Anthony Doerr - All the Light We Cannot See

 I'd heard about the Netflix series that adapted this, and many of my coworkers have read it. I also love World War II stories (if you can't tell by my historical fiction choices, haha). This book also won a major prize, and I was curious about the story.

All the Light We Cannot See follows two characters in two timelines. It bounces from the past to the present between Marie-Laure and Werner. Marie-Laure is a young girl who lives in Paris with her father. Her father works for the Museum of Natural History in Paris. As the Germans close in on Paris at the start of World War II, Daniel (Marie-Laure's father) is entrusted with one of the museum's priceless treasures: the Sea of Flames. He and Marie-Laure flee Paris to the home of Daniel's wealthy uncle, where they stay until the city is bombed. Werner is a poor German orphan in a mining town. He is particularly gifted with mathematics and engineering, and is given the opportunity to go to a prestigious Nazi school. He is then drafted into the German army and sent to Russia to track radio transmissions. Eventually, the two stories converge in an ocean town in France after it was bombed by the Allies.

The prose in this book is beautiful. I loved the way it was written, and I could see from the start why it won the Pulitzer Prize.

The jump back and forth between timelines was a little confusing at times, and I struggled with that aspect of the book from time to time. By the end, though, as the stories got closer and closer to meeting, the pace picked up considerably.

I loved the two main characters. Marie-Laure, I think, because of her blindness, got to stay childlike throughout the novel. She felt younger than she was portrayed throughout the entire story. I didn't mind that, but it did take away from the realism of her character. She still displayed great bravery as she helped with resistance efforts in their town and helped her great-uncle.

Werner's story is far sadder. I thought it was interesting how Doerr highlighted one of the greatest atrocities of the German war machine: no one dared speak up, even when they knew what was happening was wrong. We see this throughout Werner's story. He had chances to stand up multiple times, and he stayed silent each time. Those times haunt him throughout the story, to the point where he can no longer be honest in his letters home to his sister. His fate at the end made me cry, and I was really sad about how his story ended.

I found this book a fascinating look at the occupation of France and Hitler's quest to own all of the treasures in Europe.

I would say this book is appropriate for high school and above, with the complexity of the text, storyline, and language. I gave this book ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prince Harry: Spare

 My coworkers were all reading this, and I have to say that I'm fascinated by the royal family, so I gave into temptation and listened to this on Audible. Listening to the audio book was totally the way to go, since Prince Harry reads it himself. Spare  by Prince Harry is a heartbreaking memoir outlining Harry's treatment by the British tabloids. He outlines his experiences with the tabloids from the time his mother died until his departure from the royal family. This fascinating memoir gives an inside look into the workings of the royal family, and their relationships with the press. The memoir certainly makes it look as if all is not well in the house of Windsor, and attempts to set the record straight (from Harry's perspective) of what happened among the family members. Overall, I did enjoy this book. I loved the way Harry writes (and because I listened to it, the way he reads). I found his descriptions of events and places beautiful, and wish I could use it in AP! His p...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brene Brown: Daring Greatly

Brene Brown is one of my favorite TED speakers of all time. I have listened to her TED talks numerous times and used them in my classroom each year. I love her message: that we can't have success, innovation, change, and creativity without first having vulnerability. I love that she is seeking to demystify vulnerability and teach what shame is and how it destroys our ability to accept ourselves and others. I am not normally into the self-help kind of books, but of the books I've read this year, this is one of my favorites! Daring Greatly  by Brene Brown discusses the concepts of shame and vulnerability and how we need vulnerability, but not shame. She gives strategies for combating shame and becoming "shame resilient." She gives strategies to use as parents, teachers, friends, and spouses. For one thing, I love Dr. Brown's Texan accent (she narrates the audiobook herself! 💗). Her voice and personality are all throughout this book. She is not afraid to use persona...
Post a Comment
Read more

Brandon Sanderson: The Lost Metal - Wax & Wayne (Mistborn Era 2) Book 4

 I finally finished Mistborn era 2! I loved this series so much (though I think I love era 1 the most still). This story was an incredible addition to Scadrial's story. In this final installment, we pick up in Elendel at a time of great uncertainty. The outer cities are threatening war, their tentative alliance with the Malwish is falling apart over the Bands of Mourning, and Wax is still in the middle of all of it. Now serving on the senate, Wax is desperately trying to help the Elendel nobles maintain peace while hunting the Set. Unsuccessful thus far at locating his sister, the leader of the Set, Wax is still trying to uncover her plans. Can Wax, Marasi, and Wayne uncover the Set's plans before the invasion of Trell crushes Scadrial? This was a fitting conclusion for Mistborn's second era. I loved the character development we saw in each of the characters: Marasi, Wax, Wayne, and Steris. I love the involvement of some era 1 characters (one who I am not going to spoil), a...
Post a Comment
Read more