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    All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
    All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
    All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
    Audiobook16 hours

    All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

    Written by Anthony Doerr

    Narrated by Zach Appelman

    4.5/5

    ()

    • Family

    • Survival

    • Radio Communication

    • War & Its Aftermath

    • War & Occupation

    • Hidden Treasure

    • Quest

    • Wise Mentor

    • Found Family

    • Reluctant Hero

    • Loyal Friend

    • Power of Music

    • Importance of Communication

    • Nostalgia

    • Loner

    • World War Ii

    • Courage

    • Loss & Grief

    • Family & Relationships

    • Blindness

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the Audie Award for Fiction

    *NOW A NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES—from producer and director Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) starring Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie, and newcomer Aria Mia Loberti*

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, the beloved instant New York Times bestseller and New York Times Book Review Top 10 Book about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

    Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

    In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

    Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors” (San Francisco Chronicle) are dazzling. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, he illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent, deeply moving novel from a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill” (Los Angeles Times).

    Editor's Note

    One of the best of the decade…

    Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is sensational — the rare book that takes a well-worn subject and adds an unforgettable spin. It follows the twin narratives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German orphan recruited to the military, at the height of WWII. The story is haunting, the imagery of war-torn France beautiful, and the characters so rich in depth that devouring the entire book feels inevitable.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9781442369375
    All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
    Author

    Anthony Doerr

    Anthony Doerr is the author of the New York Times bestselling Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and All the Light We Cannot See, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Carnegie Medal, the Alex Award, and a #1 New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of the story collections Memory Wall and The Shell Collector, the novel About Grace, and the memoir Four Seasons in Rome. He has won five O. Henry Prizes, the Rome Prize, the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award, the National Magazine Award for fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Story Prize. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Doerr lives in Boise, Idaho, with his wife and two sons.

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    Reviews for All the Light We Cannot See

    4.5/5

    9,034 ratings656 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a beautiful and heartbreaking story, with vivid imagery and well-developed characters. Some reviewers felt that the author tried too hard to be impactful, while others found the plot slow to grab their attention. However, overall, the book is highly recommended and considered a hauntingly beautiful novel that explores the personal experiences of individuals during World War II. The storytelling is praised, although some reviewers found the ending to be anticlimactic. Despite some mixed reviews, this book is widely regarded as a must-read.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This book was amazing! Such a heartwarming, adventurous story. Must read!!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” ~Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

      It is the story of a blind French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc who lives with her father near the Museum of Natural History, Paris, France where her father works and a German boy, Werner Pfennig with his younger sister Jutta that are raised at Children’s House, an orphanage near a mining complex outside of Essen, Germany. Marie-Laure and Werner’s paths collide in occupied Saint-Malo, France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

      The two stories are interwoven and seamlessly flow back and forth between the days of their lives. It is an extraordinary and deeply moving novel that will stay in the mind and heart of this reader.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      All the Light We Cannot See tells the stories leading up to the encounter of a blind French girl, Marie-Laure, and a German orphan, Werner, during World War II. It's a long book, but the chapters are short and keeps it moving, and the characters are well written. You get a feel for them (emotions, personality, etc), the setting, and the events taking place. Anthony Doerr really knows how to write.

      Both characters start off as children before WWII but both can sense a change in their everyday life that leads to war. Marie-Laure lives in Paris with her father who works at a museum. they have to leave Paris with what might be the Sea of Flames, a diamond that is believed to be cursed causing the holder to live forever while the people closest suffer. They go to Saint Malo to stay with Marie's great uncle. Werner becomes fascinated with radios and able to fix any problem that comes up with one, he catches the attention of the German army and enters into the most prestigious school to train. He sees what is happening, doesn't like it morally but participates. He is pulled from school to track illegal radio broadcast for the German army and it leads him to Saint Malo. He has already seen the effects of war and is questioning what he has been told and has to decide if he is going to continue doing as he is told and expected or listen to his mind and hear. The book goes back and forth between the characters childhood and both of them being trapped somewhere in Saint Malo in different places, where eventually their stories come together. The book is so beautifully written, the pace is good, especially considering how long the book is, but the chapters make it fly by. It's a book you can settle into and get lost in.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Yep, I thought it was just okay. It took forever to get to the point. It was beautifully written, but just dragged.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The novel is so well written--the reader really gets to know the characters. Plus, I learned some WW2 history!
      I HIGHLY suggest!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • 5/5
      So good! It was slow going at first and I couldn’t figure out where it was heading but it was ultimately very engrossing!
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this very much. It was intriguing and had excellent narration
    • 5/5
      I loved the main characters, the lovely descriptions of their lives and relationships, and the interwoven stories. It just ended so incredibly sad. Marie-Laure had the best Dad and Great Uncle ever! They were both so gifted and raised her in a magical, imaginative way. I don't know what happened to the diamond.
    • 5/5
      It’s a great book. Highly recommend it to all.

      Thank you!
    • 2/5
      Well written, I just couldn't get into the sorry, and was lost as to what was going on.
    • 3/5
      It was just so darn sad. I kept hoping that something good was going to happen, but it didn’t.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully told story. Heart wrenching detail about children surviving war.
    • 5/5
      G o o o o o o o o d
    • 3/5
      I thought it was well written, and the characters were engaging, but the ending? It was so uneventful, such a letdown, after such an engaging story.
    • 1/5
      Look, the scattershot approach to the timeline of the book would have been bad enough, but then you have two characters questioning if resisting the Nazis is a good thing, and it's utterly exasperating.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written and heartbreaking to read. As the years go by, we tend to forget what our not-so-distant relatives suffered through.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written and my heart hurt for all the misery of war.
    • 3/5
      I read the book because I thought the show didn’t properly convey Werner’s and Marie’s relationship, I wanted to see it done well. I didn’t really get that, the description says ‘Weaves their stories together masterfully’ I guess, but only for one chapter.

      I was bored most of the way through. Didn't finish it even. Mentions of prostitution(among other things) and some slightly inappropriate things(results may vary).

    • 5/5
      Beautifully written. I won’t stop thinking of all these tender characters for a long time.
    • 1/5
      I could not finish the book because I fell asleep and it finished. Now it will not replay. So frustrating.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story. Great characters and Magically woven together. Everyone should read.
    • 5/5
      It was so real at every turn! I want to listen again, such a rare desire…..
    • 5/5
      This a hauntingly beautiful novel that I will return to again and again.
    • 5/5
      This is a truly wonderful story of the lives of people on both sides of the war. The reader is made to feel the struggles , the pain , the fear and loneliness of each of its characters. We feel the futility of war for all involved. The author’s character sketches of each person we are introduced to is fascinating and complete. This is not so much, to me, a story of events, as it is a story of humanity.
    • 5/5
      Probably the best book I've ever read. Probably isn't needed I suppose. I cry or think about crying every time I read it and always remember how I felt and where I was when I first finished it. I was left dumbfounded and hurt and could find no one around to share how I felt about it upon minutes after finishing it. Maybe that's appropriate.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book. I imagine that it will be on my top five favorite books read in 2014 list.
    • 5/5
      The novel is amazing despite the fact that not only is a novel but is a storyteller too,and eventally story goes one really surprisingly,because it shows the story of 2 young people where there paths were crossed in occupied france which is that this makes novel really essential.
    • 5/5
      this novel is so good, this book is highly recommended to read!!
    • 5/5
      A deep dive into what might have been the personal and intrapersonal experience of insignificant participants in the WII assault at St Marlo.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of a blind French girl and a young, naive German boy who through the course of WWII endure hardships, grow up, and eventually meet. There are many sub-plots which are well-developed. This isn't a story of WWII, per say, the war is only the background to the story. The book is very well written and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I'm not an easy one to impress, but this author did it. The characters are beautifully developed. This is one of the books that "haunts" you. I can see why it was a Pulitzer Prize winner. The reader comes away from the book with the lesson that there are no victors in war.