All the Light We Cannot See

A Novel

By: Anthony Doerr

Narrated by: Zach Appelman

Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2015 Audie Award for Fiction

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, 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, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

©2014 Anthony Doerr (P)2014 Simon & Schuster Audio

Great Read

This is a very great book. I loved it. It takes you in a journey with it. I highly recommend it

Very Different WW II story

Absolutely brilliant idea by Anthony Doerr to come up with a blind girl and a compassionate German orphan. Well written, though at times it gets almost poetic.

It is still odd to read WW II fiction where the Germans are not portrayed as evil torturers and in this book there are two who seemed to rather complacent.

What would Mr. Doerr have to say about the 150,000 crowd which gathered in Germany before this past Christmas chanting Wir Sind das Volk - We are the people. Hardly a generation removed and Germany is back to its d ways.

Beautifully told..wonderful story

Great story told in such a way that you can envision each moment, each scene, and feel every emotion. The end left me with a feeling of longing...

Beautifully Written

Complex plot, beautifully written.
Be aware, it goes back and forth in time.
Not knowing this I thought while listening to it
In Audible that I has inadvertently gone forward.
I would go back... Only to find it was in the written order. Wish I would have realized that in the beginning.

Sub stories

While I deeply prefer reading the end of the main story in the last chapter, many times I wonder what happened to other characters in the story. It was refreshing to have the answers to all the un-asked questions even when it slowed down the " must keep on reeding" sensation at the end.

Beautiful

Beautiful novel with gorgeous words and metaphors. Lovely story that brings you into the undertones of WW2.

Story and performance great

Any additional comments?

memorable book. Came together very nicely towards the end, and kept me going during making dinner and house chores.

Emotional and suspenseful

A very poignant tale of life for citizens in France and Germany during WWII and how those experiences affected them for the rest of their lives.

Rich storyline that comes together at the end!

What did you love best about All the Light We Cannot See?

The imagery and rich details in the writing. An enchanting story!

What was one of the most memorable moments of All the Light We Cannot See?

Werner meeting Marie… in that moment when Marie realizes that not only her broadcasts, but those of her grandfather had an impact.

Which character – as performed by Zach Appelman – was your favorite?

Werner for sure. An orphan and an underdog struggling with moral decisions as he is offered educational advances.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

All the right elements...

I was prepared to love this book. So many elements hit me precisely the right way: The language was great; the premise was alluring; the idea of wooden model villages appealed to the quirky collector in me; the details about the radio transmissions fascinated me; and the characters were all intriguing. And yet, I found my brain wandering as I listened. Even though I loved this book on many levels, I struggled to stay focused on it, which is rare for me. I'm not sure if that's because it toggled between different storylines and timelines so quickly, or if the same quirkiness that I loved about it left me feeling a bit scattered, but for whatever reason, I never felt like I really LANDED in this story.

Don't get me wrong - it's well written, a jewel of a premise, and rather well executed. It just fell flat for me. Because so many elements were right, I plan to re-listen to it in a year and see if it was simply a case of bad timing on my part. Despite my reservations, I encourage you to check it out and see what you think. There's a lot to love here.