All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel - eBook Review

Till this time, we had postponed reading All the Light We Cannot See. We were a little apprehensive about giving it a shot as it is a classic and people who have read it have loved it. Owing to some of our past experiences of reading classics, we were worried about what if we didn’t like this one too? Would we lose faith in fiction termed classic by the masses and critics alike? Finally, we gave in to the temptation to read it and, well, here are our thoughts on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by author Anthony Doerr.

The novel is set in 1944, France and Germany, at the time of World War 2. WW 2 has just ended. And people are left to struggle amidst the devastation it has caused. The story revolves around people affected by the war and how they are coping with it by looking for ways to survive.

One of them is a blind girl named Marie-Laure, living with her loving father in Paris. But the father-daughter duo had to run away from their abode as the Nazis take over Paris. But before running away, they took with them a precious and secretive thing. It belonged to the Museum of Natural History, where Marie’s father worked.

Then there is Werner in Germany, an orphan. A mine worker, Werner, is gifted with the talent of engineering. This talent makes the Nazis take notice of him. They send him to join a brutal military academy. He travels through the war and reaches the place Marie-Laure is taking refuge at a tall walled house by the sea.

Doerr’s uses words and sentences that have more meaning than just one. The writing is engaging, enthralling and at times, energetic and intense, just like the story.

Verdict

We give All the Light We Cannot See 4/5 stars. We are so glad we gave this book a chance to rekindle our love in classics. It is a stunning book. We couldn’t stop reading it once we started. It lived up to our expectations and surpassed it in some places too.

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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr