All the light we cannot see - BOOK REVIEW

All the Light We Cannot See (2014)

Anthony Doerr

The past seventy years, millions of stories have been told about the war, but Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See proves that here is still room for countless more stories.

The story starts at the bombing of a small French village. Marie Laure, blind trapped and we feel for her. We feel for the blind girl who has nowhere to go, but the Nazi… Well, although he doesn’t seem like such a bad guy, he’s still a Nazi. Before we know how it ends, the story takes us back in time.

To Paris, where we meet the girl who turns blind, but who’s taught to read Barile. What's more, here father makes a miniature of the city for her so that she can find her way. Doerr makes us feel her father’s love for her, which is truly a great achievement.

But Doerr also takes us to Werner’s orphanage. We learn how his parents have died and we watch him as he falls in love with radios. He is destined for the mines, and as he dreams of a future that is very unlikely to be his. Even if avoiding the mines means that he will have to become a Nazi, he dream with him – and unlikely the teenager, we know what this really means.

A book where the Nazi is the victim, the blind girl the heroin, and the sick man the monster – it does not get much more interesting than that. Is it perfect? No. In the middle of the book there are too many words, while towards the ends some events happen a little too abruptly. Nevertheless, one can only respect the way Doerr ties together all the storylines at the end of the book. It cries for your undivided attention until the very last page.

Overall, it is very difficult not like this book. It’s sweet, it’s touching and it makes us look at the people behind the cruelties in a different light.