“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr is a beautifully woven historical fiction about finding the light in the dark, following two children on opposite sides of conflict during World War II.
It’s fiction, but it’s deeply moving and poetically complex. Especially today, where we are living through a rise of political extremism, censored media and cultural division, it’s a necessary narrative about seeing beyond what’s put directly in front of us, even if it’s hard to see.
The story follows two main characters. The first is Marie-Larue LeBlanc, a blind teenager who fled Paris with her father to the ocean city of Saint-Malo, leaving everything familiar behind. Despite going blind and being forced to navigate war and Nazi-occupied France, Marie-Larue remains curious and resilient, using the persistence through fear she attained after going blind to compel herself forward in the dark.
Marie-Larue wasn’t the only thing her father saved from Paris bombings; he also carried what could be the most precious stone known to man: the Sea of Fire. The jewel was supposedly blessed in keeping the owner alive, but cursing everything around them — and a prominent figure within the Nazi party is on the hunt for it.
The second main character is Werner Pfennig, a young German boy who was orphaned alongside his sister, Jutta, in an impoverished coal-mining town. Werner’s character is especially complex, providing insight into how the Nazi regime gained traction in the ruins of an impoverished Germany.
As a child, Werner is exposed to stores filled with Imperial German Stormtrooper toys, songs promoting Germany above all else and broadcasts of plays portraying German vigilantes as heroes against foreign businesses seeking to murder local children.
However, Werner has a gift that exposes him and Jutta to a different perspective on their world: Werner is a prodigy with radio technology. He fixes one at the orphanage that plays broadcasts from France, which are very different from the radically nationalistic, government-mandated radios the rest of town provides.
Jutta urges Werner to see the Nazi war effort for what it is, but Werner is conflicted by his fear. If he were to stay in his hometown, he would be forced to work in the same coal mines where his father died and subjected to the same, hellish fate.
Finding light despite the darkness is a major theme, hence the title, and we see that resurface through the story and characters. For Marie-Larue, the world around her is a light beyond her sight. Her life is full of loss and suffering, but she gets through it by clinging onto the things that she loves, like reading and music and her curiosity for the natural world.
Werner’s light is the radio, which broadcasts a world for him and Jutta beyond the government-controlled vision they are limited to. However, it’s a blessing as much as it’s a curse, much like the Sea of Fire gemstone.
The prose is lyrical, with sound being a vibrant voice for much of the storytelling, especially as both Marie-Larue and Werner navigate their lives by it. The buzzing of the planes, radio, rumors and curses give life to words beyond the page and are another great instance of feeling more than what’s physically in front of us.
Overall, I’d give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars, only losing points because at times the jumps in time are a bit difficult to follow.
“All the Light We Cannot See” invites us to rage against the darkness even when we cannot see the light, even when we cannot change our past and do not know how to move forward. It’s a mirrored tale of suffering, but one that asks us to look at those around us and see what makes us similar, when the world wants to divide and manipulate us based on how we are different.
