All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure lives in Paris with her father and is blind from age 6. She has memorized the model of their Paris neighborhood that her father made her from wood and loves to read Jules Verne.
Werner is a German boy who lives in a group home with his sister. He teaches himself how to fix a radio they found and they listen in secret while the other children are sleeping.
We get to see Marie-Laure and Werner grow up into their teenage years, where they play very different parts in WWII. What I love most about this book is also what took me the most to get used to – the way it is written. It is comprised of MANY tiny chapters, alternating between Marie-Laure and Werner, with a few other points of view sprinkled throughout. For a few chapters in the beginning of each “book,” or section, it takes place a few years ahead of the other chapters. It sounds confusing but I promise you will get used to it! I love that the short chapters file everything down to the most important information; there’s no filler here.
All the Light We Cannot See is beautiful, heartbreaking, thoughtful, and a fantastic read.
5/5 Stars