All The Light We Cannot See

Author: Anthony Doerr
Genre: fiction, historical

I received this Pulitzer prize winner book as a birthday gift. I had heard a lot of good things and a prolonged sick leave gave me the chance to read this book. I must say, that after a long time, I read a work of fiction that was so fulfilling.

The book describes the lives of two characters in the second world war era. The first is a French girl, blinded at the age of 6. The second is about a German boy who gets recruited in Hitler’s army due to his special talents with operating and repairing radios. The book describes how fate and the war brings these two souls in contact with each other. The storyline is not described in a simple chronological manner. It flits between the time that the meeting happens (1944) and the time before that. The chapters alternate between the life of the girl and the boy. Because the reader catches a glimpse of the moment of climax at the very beginning, curiosity drives her through the book, to understand how the situation arose.

For me, a book can lose all of its impact if the end is not good- if it does not give me closure. However, I was not disappointed in this case. The end is not very dramatic or romantic but is realistic. The book also gave closure because it followed through the lives of the main characters in the book and showed how the war impacted their lives and left on them a lasting impression.

Finally, like most books written around the second world war, it showed how devastating wars are- how they can uproot lives and dreams, separate people and, also bring them together. What I particularly liked about this one though is that although a work of fiction, the lives and events described in this book feel very real. This makes it easier to connect with the characters and increases the impact of the story.

I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in historical fiction, the lives of people during the second world war or just looking for a good story!