Marie-Laure became blind aged 5 and her father built a model of Paris to help her navigate her way independently. As the Nazis approach they are on a mission to save a precious artefact. Werner and his sister Jutta grow up in a children’s home when they are orphaned. His skill with radios could save him from the same fate in the mines as his father but at what cost?
All The Light We Cannot See is an historical novel set in Germany and France in the lead up and during WW2.
Marie-Laure is wonderfully supported by her father who builds a replica of the city to help her find her way on her own. But when war looms, her father is entrusted with the protection of a gem that must not fall into Nazi hands. He is seized leaving Marie-Laure alone. Werner is deternined not to suffer the same fate as his father whose body wan’t recovered from the mines. He has the chance of a better future thanks to his engineering knowledge. But his choice separates him from his sister and leads him to see Nazi brutality firsthand.
The majority of the book is written to show the perspective of Marie-Laure and Werner although some chapters do show other more peripheral characters.
All The Light We Cannot See
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.
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
SOON A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES – from director Shawn Levy, starring Louis Hofmann, Lars Eidinger and Marion Bailey, with Hugh Laurie and Mark Ruffalo, and introducing Aria Mia Loberti.
WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret.
Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering.
At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.
Doerr’s combination of soaring imagination and meticulous observation is electric. As Europe is engulfed by war and lives collide unpredictably, All The Light We Cannot See is a captivating and devastating elegy for innocence.
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