All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
"The moon sets and the eastern sky lightens, the hem of night pulling away, taking stars with it one by one until only two are left."
-Anthony Doerr
This was a very different read for me as I've never read a format like it before. I did not think I would love this book, and I mainly bought it for the hype. Yes, it was a Pulitzer Prize winner but honestly? Rarely do those books become "un-put-downable" to me. But this one, this one was a different story entirely. It's some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read, truthfully. I know I'll love a book when it can pull me into its world from the very first page. And at first glance, this book didn't seem to be that. It's written in a series of short vignettes, some "chapters" only a half a page in length, three pages at the most. When I flipped through it seemed short, choppy, unorganized, which it could be if any other person wrote it. This gives enormous credit to the author for being able to take me deep into the lives of these characters, even for only a few short paragraphs. I could be wholly entranced in Paris with Marie-Laure in 3 short sentences before I'm slowly pulled out and plunged into the life of Werner and his radios. It was like magic, the way those words could pull me in.
The story switches back and forth between Marie-Laure, a young blind French girl and Werner, a German orphan turned soldier. Marie-Laure grew up fascinated with science and the sea as her father worked at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. She uses this curiosity throughout the war to stay alive and find small rays of happiness even in the most desperate of times. Werner is a whip-smart orphan who learns his skill by finding and repairing an old radio with his sister and drinking in scientific theory from any source he can like they were fairytales. He gets recognized and recruited because of his skills and uses his smarts with radios to track the resistance throughout the war. All throughout, loathing what he does and all the time wondering (hoping) there was another way, another option, another life besides the life under the Third Reich.
I loved so much about this book. Reading about war and occupation from the naive viewpoint of children shed a whole new light on the difficulties and the horror, as well as the slivers of magic found in the small moments of peace. There was added intrigue with a mysterious and very valuable missing diamond whose legend seems to proceed time. This was the only part that could be a bit hoaky at times, bringing us out of the immersive world inside this book. That's honestly the only bad thing I have to say about this book.
Marie-Laure and Werner Pfenning will live in my mind and my bookshelf forever, some of the most memorable characters I've ever read. I went into this book sceptical and ended up going through such an amazing experience. I still can't believe how beautiful that story was. So obviously, you should go and give it a read!
Overall, beautiful writing, immersive story, multi-dimensional characters, just enough fear, and just enough hope. I give this book the full 5 stars.