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.