All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE
by Anthony Doerr

Scribner
Publication Date: May 6, 2014

From Goodreads:

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

All The Light We Cannot See is a historical fiction, set in a German-occupied France. The plot was a slow burn, without a lot going on. War, bombings, city takeovers… not much, right? These things mainly seem to happen between chapters, or somewhat ‘far away.’ What we keep seeing is how these characters keep living around the changing circumstances. Some of the characters we follow are French and trying to live their lives despite the violent changes, while other characters are German and pretty much doing the same thing.

That was the most interesting thing about the characters in this book. They were all enemies, but at the same time, not enemies at all. They weren’t fighting against each other as much as the circumstances that surrounded them. There were no true villains in this book.

I mean, sure, Hitler. But he wasn’t truly part of the book. That was just something that was happening at the same time. Even the characters that could be considered ‘bad’ believed they were doing the right thing. Though honestly, the guy who would probably be considered the villain was the most interesting character.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever read a historical fiction before. And though I enjoyed it, I’m not sure I’ll be running to get my hands on another historical fiction. 

Fun fact about this post: Two posts a day for two days in a row… Don’t worry. This isn’t the start of a new thing.