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Finished: Saturday 25th June 2022
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In All The Light We Cannot See, we follow Werner and Marie-Laure through their adolescence during the Second World War. I didn’t know what to expect of this book. Through snippets of their lives, we understand what it is to be a teenage in the times of Nazi Germany as Werner spends his time in the Hitler Youth, and Marie-Laurie in Occupied France.
I didn't know what to expect of this book. I hadn't read any synopsis and all I knew was that it was based within the years of 1939-1945. I'd recently finished The Lilac Girls and and sworn myself off of these kinds of books for while; but ATLWCS is rarely available through the Libby app so when I got a notification that my "hold" was ready, it was a now or never.
As you can expect from most books set in these times, there is an element of "unexpected hero". I think it's safe to say that due to the atrocities that were discovered in the years following, the resistance that supported the French and British troops were often no different you and me.
As the housekeeper organises at one point - they must disrupt things as best they could for the Germans. We've seen it most recently through Social Media Reports from Ukraine and the Russian invasion; the moving of signposts is a classic.
My favourite thing about this book was how Doerr was able to create the tension from Marie-Laure's perspective. She is blind; having lost her sight as a child, she navigates Paris, and her new home of Saint-Malo by the patterns they keep. Doerr beautifully uses all other senses to replicate the images we're so used to having laid out for us. The smells and the sounds primarily.
For those of you who like to go down a little Rabbit Hole after your books; more information about the Battle of Saint-Malo can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saint-Malo
All The Light We Cannot See will now join the ranks of The Nightingale, The Alice Network and The Lilac Girls as strong books that capture the terror that would have been felt in those years. Another recommendation would be The Women in The Castle; which offers a perspective from a German civilian, brainwashed by the ideals outlined by Hitler, and the stubbornness that follows.
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