All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr
Scott County Library - audiobook (3 of 13 CDs) read by Zach Appelman,
hardcover 530 pages
genre: historical fiction, WWII

There was a waiting list for the audiobook and I wasn't "reading" it fast enough (not enough commuting these days) so I got the print edition. I'm glad, because the foreign phrases and the time period jumps were clearer when I could use my eyes and not just my ears.

This book is stunning and won a Pulitzer Prize. I can't adequately blog about it except to say I would definitely re-read it. What an amazing book! My favorite blurb on the back cover describes it the way I feel:

"Doerr sees the world as a scientist, but feels it as a poet. He knows about everything - radios, diamonds, mollusks, birds, flowers, locks, guns - but he also writes a line so beautiful, creates an image or scene so haunting, it makes you think forever differently about the big things - love, fear, cruelty, kindness, the countless facets of the human heart. Wildly suspenseful, structurally daring, rich in detail and soul, Doerr's new novel is that novel, the one you savor, and ponder, and happily lose sleep over, then go around urging all your friends to read - now." - J.R. Moehringer

I did make note of the sections and their timing in the novel:
0 - 7 August 1944
1 - 1934
2 - 8 August 1944
3 - June 1940
4 - 8 August 1944
5 - January 1941
6 - 8 August 1944 (short!)
7 - August 1942 (telegram)
8 - 9 August 1944
9 - May 1944
10 - 12 August 1944 (Werner! gasp)
11 - 1945
12 - 1974
13 - 2014

One quote I captured from listening to the audiobook: "History is what the victors say it is." I find this to be pretty profound. It makes me think, once again, how it would be to read history texts (in English, since I cannot read other languages) from the WWII perspectives of the French, German, Italian, Japanese, and other historians.

There were so many characters and they are still with me . . . Marie-Laure, Werner, Jutta ("Yota"), Frederick, Sister Elena, Etienne, . . . this book is definitely worth a re-read.

 

<Above posted 10.20.2018. Below added 11.11.2025.>

 

Interesting. I listened to the audiobook on Libby this time - all the way through. I knew I'd read it before, but my memory was fuzzy.  The audiobook was approximately sixteen hours long. Appelman was a fantastic narrator! My main issues with the book are the lack of chronological order and the ugliness of war.

Even hearing the dates at the start of chapters didn't help when hopping around in the 1940s . . . the sequence of events was confusing at times. As I re-read my review above, it seems that I had an issue with this the first time, too.

Doerr's language is definitely poetic - very beautiful and evocative. But he uses this language as he talks about the horrors of what the other "boys" did to Frederick and the calm deadly wrath of Volkheimer as he kills the radio nests that Werner locates. War is ugly. It's so odd that this author uses beautiful language to describe this world.

I loved Etienne and his care for his great-niece Marie-Laure. I was sad about the way Werner's story ended. I would love to discuss this book with others who love to talk about books.