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Cover of All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

🥛clean·spoiler

Why Read This?

Pulitzer Prize-winning prose that braids two WWII lives together with breathtaking imagery. The short chapters create an addictive pace despite the slow build. Marie-Laure is one of the most vivid protagonists in modern fiction—her blindness is portrayed with dignity and wonder, never pity.

Synopsis

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. An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

At a Glance

4.31 ★ Goodreads
Spice Level🥛clean
Endingspoiler
PairingN/A

Top Tropes

star-crossed loverssurvival romance

Mood

atmosphericemotionalbittersweethopefuldark

Book Details

Goodreads Rating

4.31 ★

Page Count

531 pages

Published

2014

Primary Genre

Historical Fiction

Pairing

N/A

POV

Dual POV

Cliffhanger

spoiler

Audiobook

Available

Yes

Format

Solo Narrator

Narrator

Zach Appelman

Narrator Count

Single

Tropes

RomanceMagicActionAngstWorld
Theme Constellation

Mood & Vibe

Mood

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Characters

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deathviolencetorturewarbombingchild soldiersblindnessNazi themesstarvationcaptivitygriefbullyingantisemitismcancerloss of parent

World & Setting

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Reading Context

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