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Jul 27, 2018RogerDeBlanck rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Marvel at the details, admire the beauty, and feel both bereft and euphoric with emotion. Anthony Doerr’s epic World War II novel is a spellbinding experience that confirms belief in the goodness of the human spirit. The story charts the paths of two extraordinary young characters: Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind fourteen-year old French girl, and Werner Pfennig, a sixteen-year old German boy conscripted into a Nazi Youth group. How their fates merge is enough to keep you riveted, but the novel is so much more. Doerr incorporates an astonishing range of knowledge into the narrative. He is an expert on topics as diverse as gems, seashells, ocean currents, cloud formations, and radio transmissions, to highlight merely a few. Equally impressive is the lushness of the prose he employs in every sentence. He elevates language to the highest level of poetics and lyricism. Remarkable in scope and gorgeous in construction, All the Light We Cannot See is a masterful literary achievement.