When our book club first selected All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, I thought “not another WWII story.” But the refreshingly surprising thing about this book is that it allows you to stand in a spot you’ve never been before. It is not told through an American soldier’s eyes. Nor is it narrated by a Jewish prisoner. Its perspective is that of a blind French girl and a German boy, both who are seeking to find their balance in a world suddenly turned upside down.
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Doerr writes so beautifully, you will want to mark sentences in All the Light We Cannot See to be read again later and aloud. Through his characters, you feel how life outside the confines of one’s home become something devastating and dangerous, almost with no warning. There is no instruction booklet for surviving a war, so Marie-Laure and Werner are left to navigate this treacherous new ground alone, with only their instincts and prayers to guide them.
