Another outstanding piece of historical fiction and winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize, All the Light We Cannot See is set during World War 2. The plot centers around two young characters. One is a French girl named Marie-Laure, who lives in Paris with her father but, at the age of six is robbed of her eyesight by cataracts. Her father builds a scale model of her neighborhood for her to memorize by touch.

The other is a German boy named Werner Pfenning, son of a poor mining family whose future is also in the coal mines until his talent for math and electronics is discovered. He is then sent to a Hitler Youth school to further develop these skills. He is later promoted into the Whermacht where he triangulates the location of French radio transmissions.

Once the war starts, Marie-Loure’s father is involved in brief radio transmissions of codes to undisclosed receivers and, as Werner’s unit pushes deeper into France, well, you can see where this is heading.

A subplot in this and one that will eventually impact the main storyline involves a very valuable red jewel. Marie’s father’s main job before the war was as a museum curator where this jewel was located. Myth surrounding this gem stayed that the owner will have cured whatever ails him. Three excellent copies are made and these, along with the original, are evacuated from the museum along different routes to prevent it from being looted by the advancing German armies.

Enter one Sergeant-Major con Rumpel(German) on a quest to find and capture this jewel, as it turns out for very personal reasons, in a deadly race against time.

This subplot adds a fascinating twist to the story and even touches on the Nazi fascination with the occult, without over dramatizing it or allowing it to distract from the main storyline.

A beautiful, suspenseful tale masterfully interlacing two previously innocent lives in the backdrop of the most horrific event of the 20th Century. ( )

I was first introduced to this book last year while teaching Pre-Ap English. There was an excerpt in it from three character’s perspective in our textbook. Once of my students asked if I knew there was a movie about it. I did not because I prefer to read a book first.

Marie is blind and her father works for a museum. When the Nazi’s invade her father takes her and they leave to live with her great-uncle. The other character we meet is Werner. He is an orphan. He has a talent for fixing radios. Unfortunately he’s not supposed to be listening to the radio. The Germans take him and he is forced to use his skills to try to locate whoever has been leaving messages to guide the resistance. This is where his path and Marie’s cross.

There were a couple of things I really enjoyed about this book, besides the story itself. The chapters are short. We get glimpses of each of the character’s story as well as what happened to them at the end of the story. I am one of those readers who will often read the ending to find out what happened and then go back to fill in all of the blanks. I didn’t have to do that with this book as the reader knows the outcome of some of the characters before the end of the book.

By the way, the movie is just as awesome. ( )

really liked the book, but I was disappointed with the ending. It just kind of fizzled for me ( )

Saw the miniseries first and reading the book after. Beautiful and so rich. Loved this. ( )

Dieses Buch lag nun schon relativ lange auf meinem SUB und ich bin froh, es endlich gelesen zu haben.

Die beiden parallelen Handlungsstränge um Marie-Laure und Werner, die sich gegen Ende des Krieges in Saint-Malo treffen, haben mir ziemlich gut gefallen. Deutlich verzichtbar war für mich der dritte Handlungsstrang, der mich doch ein wenig zu sehr an das Klischee des bösen Nazis auf der Suche nach einem mythischen Gegenstand erinnert hat (das kennen wir alle schon von Indiana Jones und ohne Harrison Ford macht es weniger Spaß).

Aber die Sprache, die vielen kleinen Ideen am Rande, die Schilderung, wie Marie trotz ihrer Blindheit den Alltag meistert, das alles hat mich ungemein beeindruckt, auch wenn ich mich erst daran gewöhnen musste, in einem Roman verschiedene Zeitebenen im Wechsel zu haben, die so nahe beieinander liegen wie hier. Und sehr gelungen fand ich auch den Teil des Buches, der die Geschichten nach dem Krieg abrundete.

J ( )