Anthoy Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See lives up to the hype! This historical fiction novel is set in World War II and alternates between two main characters, a teenage boy named Werner Pfennig and a blind teenage girl named Marie-Laure.Don’t be the last one to the party on this book! Netflix is planning on creating a four-part limited series based on this book, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Hugh Laurie is set to play the role of Marie-Laure's great uncle!This is my second A...

"Don’t you want to be alive before you die?" We follow two storylines - one set in Germany focused on Werner Pfennig, an orphan, who's always dreamed of an education. He finally gets an opportunity, through the brutal tutelage of the Nazis.And we follow Marie-Laure, a French blind girl much beloved by her father, a locksmith of the Museum of Natural History. She and her father flee occupied France to live with a reclusive uncle. "But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my lif...

This is a great book. Its very high ratings (4.3; half of the ratings are "5's") renews my faith that GR ratings count for something. With almost 50,000 reviews on GR I don’t feel there is a lot for me to add but here’s a brief summary of the plot and I’ll give a few examples of the great literary writing.It’s just before the Nazi invasion and occupation of Paris. A young blind girl relies on her father for everything and she is his world as well. He spends all his time making her a wooden model...

Honestly, wtf? I mean, we all know the blind person trope (Daredevil, etc) and the lovable Nazi trope (Hiroshima Mon Amour) and the mystical object searched for by evil Nazis trope (Indiana Jones), so why throw all of these together? The book was readable but no more so than a pulp fiction thriller. Honestly, I don't see this as being Pulitzer quality. The characters were ok, the narration interesting, but a masterpiece? The best US fiction in 2015? Perhaps not. And please don't accuse me of bei...

“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?” I'm going to be honest - love for this book didn't hit me straight away. In fact, my first attempt to read it last year ended with me putting it aside and going to find something easier, lighter and less descriptive to read. I know - meh, what a quitter.But this book is built on beautiful imagery. Both in the literal sense - the physical world of 1940s Paris/Germany - and the metaphor...

4/20/15 - PULITZER WINNER for 2014 The brain is locked in total darkness of course, children, says the voice. It floats in a clear liquid inside the skull, never in the light. And yet the world it constructs in the mind is full of light. It brims with color and movement. So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light? Marie Laure LeBlanc is a teen who had gone blind at age 6. She and her father, Daniel, fled Paris ahead of th...

All the Light We Cannot Seeby Anthony Doerr This book has haunting, beautiful prose. It's brimming with metaphors, painting gorgeous images. I didn't want it to end, but I couldn't put it down. "In August 1944 the historic walled city of Saint-Malo, the brightest jewel of the Emerald Coast of Brittany, France was almost destroyed by fire....Of the 865 buildings within the walls, only 182 remained standing and all were damaged to some degree." -Philip Beck _____________________________________Two...

This is a carefully constructed book which is bound to captivate a large audience and become very popular, and be blessed with many warm reviews - it was chosen by Goodreads members as the best historical fiction of 2014, and shortlisted for the National Book Award. There are multiple reasons for its success - but they are also the same reasons as to why I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.Anthony Doerr's All The Light We Cannot See follows the parallel lives of two protagonists - Marie...

Why write a review if I am such an atypical reader?I will keep this brief since I feel most readers will not react as I have, but isn’t it important that all views are voiced?All readers must agree that the flipping back and forth between different time periods makes this book more confusing. I believe it must be said loudly and clearly that the current fascination with multiple threads and time shifts is only acceptable when they add something to the story, when employment of such improves the ...

I always thought, or imagined, that there were these invisible lines trembling in our wake, outlining our trajectories through life, throbbing with electric energy. Lines that sometimes cross one other, or follow in parallel ellipses without ever touching, or meet up for one brief moment and then part. A universe of lines crisscrossing in the void.Anthony Doerr's astonishing new novel "All The Light We Cannot See" follows the complex arcs of two such invisible lines through the lives of Werner P...