All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

Last week, I in the library browsing for books. I desperately needed something to read so I could do a blog post, so I went to the "New Releases" section, and grabbed the first one I saw. It turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time.

All the Lights We Cannot See  contains some of the most hauntingly beautiful, precise prose I have ever read. It actively engages all five senses, in a way that ordinary writing just cannot hope to accomplish. This is one of those books, that you read slowly to absorb every last detail, dreading that moment when you inevitably turn the last page.

“A foot of steel looks as if it has been transformed into warm butter and gouged by the fingers of a child"

All the Lights We Cannot See is a novel written with two parallel story lines. One of the story lines takes place in Nazi Germany and follows a young boy Werner, who has a natural affinity for Math and Science, wins a spot in the infamous Hitler Youth Academy. This is his only way to escape the dangerous coal mines his father died in.

The second story takes place in France, following a young girl named Marie-Laurie. Who goes blind from a degenerative disease at the age of six. We look on helplessly as the Germans invade Paris, and Marie and her father have to flee to an island city of Saint-Malo.

The book poetically switches between the parallel story lines, and weaves a tale of masterful proportions.

And the Mountains Echoed

The book starts off with a touching, but sad story told from the father of  Abdullah, and Pari (the main characters) as they are crossing the desert.

This is a book about good,and evil. Purity. Darkness. Commitment and Addiction.

And the Mountains Echoed was a joy to read, such a joy in fact, that I had trouble putting it down.

Actual Story Pages 1 - 9: Click Here, highly recommend that you read it.

The story the book starts off with, is in essence the basic premise of the entire book itself. And the Mountains Echoed is a novel about brothers and sisters, and I highly recommend that you read this book, before reading the rest of the blog post, as the rest of the blog post contains spoilers.

This is one of my favorite books so I highly recommend that you read it.

PDF of the book
Epub of the book

Spoilers, Stop Reading Here if you have not read the book

Abdullah is the brother of Pari, and at the beginning of the book you are introduced to a struggling family living the in a desolate village in the middle of Afghanistan. Abdullah lost his mother when she was giving birth to Pari, so their father Saboor decides to remarry, he marries Parwana, with whom Saboor tries to have another child, but that child Omar dies because of the bitter cold when he is one year old, as the family doesn't have much money. Saboor feels extremely distraught after the death of Omar, and feels that if he had found better work Omar would still be alive. Abdullah the brother of Pari is her best friend, and loves her more than anything else in the world. He is her primary caretaker, and her father figure. At the beginning of the book Abdullah, Saboor, and Pari all go to Kabul because Saboor has "work". But it turns out that the job he has to do, was selling Pari to a wealthy family in Kabul - the Wahdati's. 

After the introduction of Abdullah and Pari, the book changes points of view, and is told from the view of Uncle Nabi, the assistant of the Wahdati's. Uncle Nabi recounts his experiences with Abdullah and Pari, and how he is associated with the Wahdati's. Through Uncle Nabi, we are able to see Pari grow up, in addition to the tensions that occur between the different characters in the novel. Hossieni uses Nabi to give a backstory of the Wahdati's, and also allows us to witness Kabul growing up.

 As the book progresses you learn the back stories of all the people associated with Abdullah and Pari, and how they grow up apart. But at the conclusion of the book, Abdullah's daughter finds Pari and brings her to Abdullah, who now has Alzheimers, and cannot remember anything from his past. But before he was diagnosed with Alzheimers he left a note to Pari, along with a present for her. The book ends when Pari finds the present and the note. The book ends on a bittersweeet note, with Abdullah not being able to remember the thing he loved most in the world (Pari) and Pari finally reconnecting with her past.

I decided to take a break from the fiction world and read something more realistic. The book I read was called Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku. This book was unlike any other non-fiction book I have read. It combined the fiction world with current science, to make all the things that seem impossible, possible to a certain extent. The author of this book is a Japanese-american physicist who, in his high school science fair built an atom smasher. Well in this book he explains how everything is possible and he explains possible ways to make things that seem impossible.

     First the book is divided into three parts, which are determined by how impossible something really is. In the first part Michio Kaku talks about how the force fields in Star Wars can come to life by using plasma and electromagnetic fields. He then talks about invisible cities built from carbon threads the strongest known building material. He then goes on to talk about teleportation and time travel. This book was really interesting to me because took the fiction world and brought it into reality.

     This book is inspirational, it shows that no matter how difficult something may seem it can be accomplished through hard work and perseverance. Michio Kaku basically shows that everything is possible. This book brings science-fiction to life, that is one of the reasons I like it. It is a good book to read even for people who dislike non-fiction because of the way it incorporates science-fiction ideas. It shows us that there is so much we still don't know yet and there are so many things that we haven't invented, and they can all be done with enough effort.