Title: All The Light We Cannot See

Author: Anthony Doerr

Publisher: Scribner 2014

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 531

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: TBR Reduction; Ebook; A to Z - A; 52 Books - W15; New Author

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

This month's book club selection. I was intrigued by the first chapter, but also a little concerned that the story was going to drag. Thankfully it did not. I was fully invested in Marie-Laure and Wener's separate and combined stories. The characters are great and I loved the storyline. But my favorite part of the novel was the writing style. Doerr's writing is magically lyrical. I was instantly transported to the locations in the book. My favorite was the hidden grotto Marie-Laure frequents in Saint-Malo. Such a fancy place. I could see it perfectly in my mind. the novel was a great read. I can't wait to discuss at book club on Sunday.