All The Light We Cannot See is the story of two teenagers whose lives intersect in a German-occupied city of France.

Marie-Laure is a visually impaired 12-year-old girl who lives with her father Daniel Leblanc. Daniel works as a locksmith for the Museum of Natural History in Paris. He builds a scale model of their neighborhood for Marie so that she knows how to navigate every nook and cranny of her surroundings. When war comes to their door, they flee to Saint-Malo to live with Marie’s great uncle and his housekeeper. Her father builds her a scale model of Saint-Malo but this time, unbeknownst to Marie, the model holds a secret.

In Germany, Werner Pfennig grows up in an orphanage with his sister Jutta. Werner is gifted in technical skills and always finds himself repairing some type of machinery or other. When the Nazis come to power, his talent becomes a matter of interest. Soon he is made to serve on the German front lines. He and his colleagues are eventually sent to Saint-Malo. Werner’s life takes a turn when he comes face to face with his past fervor and he is forced to battle his moral conflicts. 

How did it make me feel?

This is one of my favorite books. I absolutely fell in love with the characters. Doerr beautifully captures the lives canopied by the horrors of war. For those of us, who are lucky enough to witness wars only in history books, the term ‘war’ is vague.  We see war as something that has the start and end dates, some countries involved, some lives lost. But books like All The Light We Cannot See just make it that much more real. It makes us realize how the people living their everyday lives, as we are now, were ravaged by the war and how the consequences span generations. 

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What’s your favorite World War II story? Besides All The Light We Cannot See, my favorite is The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Read my review here.