Review: All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth,

In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

What a fantastic book. I didn’t think it was going to be for me initially but with short chapters and different POVs it soon had me engaged.

Marie-Laure’s struggles are well written and believable. Werner is a young German boy who manages to escape a very poor and sad upbringing by using his brilliant skills in making and repairing radios for the German army.

We follow both their lives as the book builds to a point where their paths cross. Memories of hearing Marie-Laure’s father’s voice over a radio lead Werner to help keep her safe while she is broadcasting messages from the French resistance.

It’s really well written and loose ends and stories finished nicely at the end.


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