read: All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

I picked up All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr at the airport on my way to Canada in December. It was one of two books I purchased for my trip. I finally got to it in the airport on my way home. This book transported me directly to France and Germany and into the hearts and minds of its characters for the three days it took me to read it and beyond. (I would have finished sooner had I not been completely plowed down by some heinous virus that lasted for those three days plus with a fever that would not quit). Such beautiful language, I had to read some sentences over just to experience their beauty again.

The stories of Marie-Laure, a blind Parisian child at the beginning of the book and that of Werner, a German orphan living in a bleak mining town are told in parallel until they are carefully brought together in the later days of the war as both are desperately trying to hold onto themselves and the best part of the world they once knew. Both Marie-Laure and Werner are in precarious places in the world at the start of the story. Werner an orphan trying to fit in and figure things out and Marie-Laure, a young blind girl living alone with her father in a Parisian apartment and thrown into an unfamiliar world. The precariousness of their worlds never seem to right for very long. You witness their inner journeys and the ugliness as well as beauty of humanity. I wholeheartedly enjoyed this book.

Yes, this is another WWII book. No, you've not been here before. It's a read you shouldn't miss.