I tend to shy away
from books I perceive as over-hyped, and sometimes that decision is a
mistake. One friend I particularly trust
– who shares my view of the too heavily promoted novel – told me I would like Anthony
Doerr. It is a wonderful thing to have a
circle of trustworthy sources.
Anthony Doerr has
written several novels and won numerous awards, including 4 O. Henry Prizes, 3
Pushcarts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a handful of others. He lives in Boise, Idaho. All the
Light We Cannot See is his latest novel.
Marie-Laurie LeBlanc
lives with her father in Paris, France.
She is blind, and her father has constructed an accurate – to the
smallest detail – model of their neighborhood.
Using only her sense of touch, she learns how to navigate the city,
counting storm drains, benches, fragrant shops, and other landmarks. Eventually, she is able to walk around the
city on her own. When the German army
invades France, Monsieur Daniel LeBlanc flees with his daughter to the walled
city of St. Malo, which has resisted invaders for centuries. He is a gem and mineral expert, and Daniel takes
possession, for the Paris Museum of Natural History, a fabled diamond known as
“The Sea of Fire.”
Werner Pfennig is a
rather precocious orphan, who has a remarkable ability to build and repair
radio equipment. The orphanage is run by
Frau Elena, a Protestant nun from Alsace, who sings French folksongs and
teaches the children her language.
Together with his sister, Jutta, the children listen to French
broadcasts about science, history, literature.
Word spreads of Werner’s talents, and neighborhood residents begin
flocking to the orphanage for his help.
The Nazis learn of his talent, and send him to an exclusive school for
engineering and science in Berlin.
 |
| St. Malo today |
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| St. Malo after the firebombing |
A fourth important
character is Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel. He has an extraordinary talent as a gem
expert. As the Nazis vacuum up priceless
works of art, von Rumpel searches for The Sea of Fire. He knows about Daniel and his daughter and
the diamond.
How these
individuals intersect and come together at the end of the novel requires an amazing
web of story-telling I have rarely encountered.
Daniel has purchased – with great sacrifices – some Braille books for
Marie-Laurie, and she learns to read.
Doerr writes, “Thos last nights in Paris, walking home with her father
at midnight, the huge book clasped against her chest, Marie-Laurie thinks she
can sense a shiver beneath the air, in the pauses between the chirring of the
insects, like the spider cracks of ice when too much weight is set upon
it. As if this time the city has been no
more than a scale model built by her father and the shadow of a great hand has
fallen over it. // Didn’t she presume she would live with her father in Paris
for the rest of her life? That she would
always sit with Dr. Geffard in the afternoons?
That every year, on her birthday, her father would present her with
another puzzle and another novel, and she would read all of Jules Verne and all
of Dumas and maybe even Balzac and Proust?
That her father would always hum as he fashioned little buildings in the
evenings, and she would always know how many paces from the front door to the
bakery (40) and how many more to the brasserie (32), and there would always be
sugar to spoon into her coffee when she woke? vv […] Now? What will happen now?” (71-72).
As the conflict
inches closer to D-Day, the tension mounts.
Three of the characters meet in St. Malo. Anthony Doerr’s novel, All the Light We Cannot See is a magnificent tale of World War II
from the viewpoint of some of its most innocent witnesses. I strongly recommend this book for lovers of
suspense, joy, misery, fear, and love. 5
stars.
--Chiron, 7/15/15
