"All the light we cannot see" by Anthony Doerr: Review:

“We rise again in the grass. In the flowers. In songs.”

You requested it, so here it is! Today is the turn of “All the light we cannot see” by Anthony Doerr, a historical fiction published in 2014, and was a bestseller since its release. Without further due, here’s the summary and what I thought about this fiction.

During World War II, in France, a little girl named Marie-Laure is living with her father who works in the National Museum of Natural History. She became blind at the age of six due to a degenerative disease. Her father tries to simplify her life by creating some ingenious ideas, like creating a model of the neighborhood where they live, so she can be independent. She’s also very passionate about reading adventure novels, so she starts learning to read in Braille.

Werner pfennig, an 8 year old German orphan, is passionate about fixing radios. He found one in an orphanage, fixed it and began using it with his sister Jutta, spending the night listening to a French scientific professor.

When Germany decided to attack France in 1940, Marie-Laure and her father didn’t have a choice but to leave Paris, and take refuge with her uncle in Saint-Malo. But soon, she will find herself confronting life on her own.

On the other hand, even if his dream is becoming an engineer, Werner find himself called for duty in the front est, and that by using his scientific skills in spotting German’s enemy.

What did I think about this book? Well I really did have a hard time finishing it :p it’s not that I didn’t like, but it’s not my type. I’m not into historical fiction, especially when there’s a lot of narration like this one. I’m a kind of person who loves action, and I did find this book boring a lot of times. But the narration is astonishing! The way Anthony Doerr describes the places, when Marie-Laure or Werner were listening to the radio, made me imagine the scenes in the best way possible. The chapters were told in an alternative way, between Marie-Laure, Werner, but also by Sergent Major Reinhold Von Rumpel, a corrupted cruel evil Nazi.

Reading about Marie-Laure and Werner stories was so beautiful, but also emotional. Another part that I didn’t like about the book, well spoiler alert, is how small the moment was when Marie-Laure and Werner meet. I was waiting for this moment, and when it finally did, I was so disappointed. I feel like they deserve more than just one or two chapters about their meeting.

It’s a beautifully written book, yet it’s a book that concentrates a lot about narration, that the plot is almost non-existent. So for all the amateurs of beautiful and mesmerizing narration, this book is for you!

So, hope our review will give you a little idea about the book. And if you have already read it, feel free to share your thoughts.