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All The Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See is a novel of exceptional value. Written in a style both haunting and beautiful, it takes you from unfathomable depths to the highest peaks. This story tugged at my emotional heart strings like no other novel has. The connection that Anthony Doerr was able to create between me as reader, and the characters and their struggles was a powerful one.

Set in Europe at the start of the Second World War, this is the story of Marie-Laure, a young French girl, and Werner Pfennig, an orphan boy from a German mining town. Marie-Laure is blind, and lives with her father, who works at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, when the Germans invade. They set out for refuge with a Great Uncle in the seaside walled town of Saint-Malo. Her father had built a model replica of their section of Paris, as an aide to teach Marie-Laure how to navigate the outside world despite her blindness. Once settled in Saint-Malo he sets about replicating this for her new world.

Meanwhile Werner lives with his sister and many other children in an orphanage in Germany. He stumbles upon a broken radio, and sets about repairing it, and in the process becomes advanced in the understanding of these new devices. This also introduces a new, larger world to both himself and his sister. They hear the sounds of a French man on the airwaves teaching about so many new ideas. Eventually the Germans ban anyone from operating a radio, effectively cutting them off from the outside world.

The story cuts back and forth through time, alternating between the early years of the war and the days leading up to its ending, before progressing to the mid 70's with the story's conclusion. We flip between Marie Laure's realisation that she will be stuck in Saint-Malo for some time, and won't be going home to Paris, and Werner's skills as a radio technician, his entry to an elite school, before being sent off to the war front to apply his skills in tracking down enemy radio usage.

Slowly but surely, both Marie-Laure and Werner are being brought together, protected it would seem, by a precious gem in Marie Laure's possession, and the radio waves emanating from her little domain. Radio waves that speak to Werner in the present, but bring with it a mystery from the past. A reminder from a time when death wasn't their reality. When the wonders of life were worth pursuing, and not just for the sake of destruction. And when life was worth preserving.

All the Light We Cannot See is about two children thrown violently into an adults world. It is about how they survive, how their hearts seek out sustenance, and the internal battles they both go through to reclaim the strength that had once existed within. It is paced gently, but sufficiently, growing like a tightening spring as the story progresses, and the different characters all seem to be aligning with a central pivot point, being brought together, as if by fate.

Werner eventually remembers the words he heard from the Frenchman over the airwaves as a young child. They return to him, as he struggles with the process of being shaped relentlessly into a piece of the German war machine, a non-thinking, order following cog in the wheel.

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.

The words act like a spark that bring him back from the edge, a reminder of the times he and his sister were enthralled by the wonders of the world. A light within that had nearly been snuffed out shines again, slowly returning, as he ponders his options to make sure that greater light never goes out.

The individual storylines are written in a way that is evocative of the individual children involved. The language used in Marie-Laure's are indicative of the thoughts and ideas of a blind child. The smells and textures, and uncertainty derived from lack of vision all come through and give an air of credibility to the writing.

Playing on the theme of light, sight, and internal goodness, Anthony Doerr has spun a story worth spending time with. The characters are genuine, believable, and a core part of what makes this novel such a delight.

Published May 2014.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

I highly recommend All The Light We Cannot See, and give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Cover image source. Other images sourced from unsplash.com.

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