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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 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐



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