Ten years in the making, Anthony Doerr delivers a beautiful bestseller, intertwining the lives of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide. Both trying to survive the devastation of World War ll, a captivating story is told from the perspective of each character.
1. What initially drew you to read this book?
McCall: “I was given this book at a trade show that we worked for a client, and never thought twice about it. Then I spent some time with my grandmother, and she mentioned that she had read it and loved it. My grandmother always has strong opinions on books.”
Katie: “It was recommended to me by McCall Peck.”
2. Would you recommend this book to someone else? Why or why not?
McCall: “Yes. Doerr does a beautiful job displaying a story of a well known era, but from a not known perspective. Both stories are so realistic, so touching, and both share their own sets of hardships to overcome.”
Katie: “I have mixed reviews regarding this book. It was voted the best historical fiction in 2014, which I believe Anthony Doerr did an amazing job painting a picture of the 1944 era. However, to maintain suspense, he switches both between characters’ perspectives and time periods. It was difficult to read, as Doerr would write between various parts of the book set in different years.”
3. Who would you recommend reads this kind of book?
McCall: “People who are open to reading a variety of stories, bookworms who like history, coming of age novels, and just enjoy good writing. If you do not like stories that jump around from character to character, or time frames, I would not suggest this, as every chapter is a jump.”
Katie: “Anyone that has an interest in historical fiction novels.”
4. What do you believe is the correlation between the book title and the story?
McCall: “The motif of light throughout this whole novel is really too lengthy to put my Ted Talk on here. However, I feel that there is a literal and figurative point to be made. Literal: there are so many plot developments that happen from “things we cannot see” throughout the story. From Marie going blind, to a hopeful education sent by way of radio waves, and finding victims this same way, that simply happens from light wavelengths to radio transmission waves and more. Figuratively: both of the main characters build a life from the light that is not displayed to them, and overcome their challenges, to understand hindsight of what they couldn’t see or understand at that time in their life.”
Katie: “Throughout this story and true events during the war, radio waves provided the light of distraction or updates on the war for all those trapped by the crumbling world around them. On a deeper level, I believe All the Light We Cannot See is a metaphor for the countless and untold stories still buried within World War ll.”
5. Were there any quotes from the book that really stuck out to you?
McCall: “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” and “Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its string might sail out of your hands forever.”
Katie: “There are, he assures her, no such things as curses. There is luck, maybe, bad or good. A slight inclination of each day toward success or failure. But no curses”, “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”, and “Time is a slippery thing: lose hold of it once, and its strong might sail out of your hands forever.”
Overall Score:
McCall: 4/5
Katie: 3.5/5
At the end of each month, check out our reviews for each book that we read that month! Up next? The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.
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