All The Light We Cannot See

 

All The Light We Cannot See is the story of how Marie-Laure LeBlanc's and Werner Pfenning's paths cross in Nazi occupied France during World War II.  Marie-Laure is a young blind girl who lives in Paris with her father, Daniel, near the Museum of Natural History where Daniel works.  Werner is a young orphan living with his sister Jutta in an orphanage in Germany.

Marie-Laure and Daniel go to live with Marie-Laure's great uncle Etienne in the city of Saint-Malo after the Nazis occupy Paris.  The museum has a valuable stone, the Sea of Flames, and three copies of the diamond are made due to the Nazi occupation.  Daniel and two other museum employees are given a stone, not knowing if they are copies or the real diamond.  Daniel takes the stone with him when they go to Saint-Malo.   Daniel makes a miniature of Etienne's house and hides the stone there.  He also makes a miniature of the city to help Marie-Laure learn her way around.  He tells Marie-Laure and Etienne he has some business to take care of and has to leave for a while, but he is arrested and put in a camp on his way to his destination where he dies later.

Etienne's housekeeper, Madame Manec, organizes a resistance against the Nazis which Etienne and Marie-Laure eventually participate in.  Etienne has a radio transmitter that Etienne's brother Henri (Marie-Laure's grandfather) used to do broadcasts about science.  Etienne broadcasts codes and messages to undermine the Nazis, and Marie-Laure buys a loaf of bread from the bakery every day with a scroll with important information about the resistance.

Werner has talent for technology and science.  He finds a radio transmitter at the orphanage and repairs it.  He and Jutta listen to the same science broadcasts Marie-Laure's grandfather made.  Werner is accepted into the training program at the National Institute and is sent to the front later.  His job is to discover illegal radio transmissions, and this is how he and Marie-Laure connect. Werner and the other soldiers go to Saint-Malo, and he hears the same radio broadcast coming from Etienne's house that he and Jutta heard after he repaired the radio transmitter.  He watches the house and sees Marie-Laure.

A Nazi official, Reinhold von Rumpel, is under orders to confiscate and catalogue jewels from occupied German territory.  He becomes fixated on the Flaming Sea and traces it to Etienne's house.  When the Nazis bomb Saint-Malo, von Rumpel takes the opportunity to go to Etienne's house to try to find the diamond.   Marie-Laure, who has been separted from Etienne during the bombing, hides in the attic and sends radio broadcasts which Werner hears.  He goes to Etienne's house, shoots von Rumpel and helps Marie-Laure get out of the city.

Sadly, Werner dies before the war ends, but he and Marie-Laure have a reconnection of sorts when Werner's sister Jutta finds her later.

What I liked:  The writing itself is good.  The author does a good job describing the countryside, and the setting is interesting.  I like the interaction between Marie-Laure and her father, and how he encourages her independence by making a model of their neighborhood so she can learn to navigate the area.  I like how Werner helps Marie-Laure.  There is a sad side to the book, but there is a positive message about helping others.

The issues:  The chapters are very short, and although I did like the book, in my opinion longer chapters with more information are easier to read.  That is my preference though.  Nothing really happens with the diamond, either; it is hidden when Marie-Laure leaves Saint-Malo, and we don't find out if this is the real Flaming Sea.

I did enjoy All The Light We Cannot See, and I think people who like literary and historical fiction would like this book.