Review for "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

Open your eyes and see what you can see with them before they close forever.

Rating: 4 stars

This is a beautiful story. You have a blind teenage girl, trying to survive a war and at the same time do her part to end it. Her father, caught up in the safeguard of a legendary stone to make one immortal. A dying German Sergeant, searching desperately for said stone. The blind girl's uncle, who plays an instrumental yet anonymous role in America's victory in the War. An exceptionally gifted young boy, who dreams of being an engineer but gets swept into the whirlwind of the War nonetheless. And the boy's sister, who dreams of the day her brother, and the radiocaster they used to listen to together, will return to her.
The book moves slowly; the plot does not have an urgent direction, but the characters more than make up for it. Marie-Laure is a brilliant protagonist, I love her resilience and her intense interest in mollusks, of all things. Werner is another kind of brilliant, he's smart, but in such a way that he doesn't acknowledge his intelligence, he's just extremely curious. On top of this, the character are so compassionate (thinking of the dynamic between Werner and Fredrick breaks my heart) that it adds another layer to the characters.

She says, "When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same?"
He says, "Not in years. But today. Today maybe I did."

By far, the most compelling attribute of the story is the delicate interweaving of the characters lives. Not only is this story told in two separate timelines, but the characters lives are so separated for the majority of the book. And logically, their paths should never have crossed. She's a girl living relatively comfortably during WWII France, and he's an orphan forced into a War for a country that he doesn't actually side with. It is really a wonderful feeling when you near the end and can see the pieces fall into place.
I honestly don't have much more to say about this story; if you like historical fiction, especially WWII historical fiction, this is the book for you.