All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, All the Light We Cannot See takes place in the devastation of World War II. Set in occupied France, Marie-Laure lives with her father who works in the Museum of National History, where he works as the master of its thousand locks. At the age of six, Marie goes blind. Her father builds her a miniature of their neighbourhood, so with her sense of touch, she can memorise the route home. At the age of twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and the flee to Saint Malo, and with them, they carry what might be the cursed jewel. It could be a fake. Who knows?

In Germany, an orphan, Werner, lives with his sister in a mining town. He finds a crude radio and fixes it, and soon enough, he has become an expert at constructing and fixing different radios. This opens up his world, where soon enough, he is invited for Hitler Youth, where many different things happen, including a special assignment to track The Resistance.  Werner travels through different towns, where he finally land into the town of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure crosses paths with him for the first time…

An intriguing book, this book has been proven to have Anthony Doerr’s “stunning sense of physical detail and gorgeous metaphors”. To me, this book gives me a sense of excitement to what is going to happen next.  When the different events unfold (and the puzzle you’ll feel when you first pick up the book – the book rapidly sweeps between different point of views!), you’ll have a sense of accomplishment when you finally understand what is happening in the book.

This book is a dazzle, it captivates me and it’s a page turner. It’s a book of war, on the Holocaust, and twisted in is a little bit of romance that completes the whole plot and the whole story. I highly recommend this!

Germaine Ong

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