[REVIEW] All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

When I first heard about this book, I knew it will be amazing, instantly. Historical fiction is not a genre I like venturing into because I tend to get bored easily. Strangely, I'm rather interested in the history regarding WW2. The summary of this book gives the vibe of romance but to my surprise, it's not. 

Goodreads summary: From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. 

Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. 

In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure.
Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work.

All I can say is that ATLWCS is the most stunningly written fiction I ever read this year. The author, Doerr's writings was beautiful, almost enchanting. He could describe every vivid details as if he was presently in the book, alive with the characters. Everything felt so surreal and unbelievable. Of course, the story is amazing. The multiple characters' views regarding their current situations and feelings are coherently matched. 

This story is unbelievably lengthy. It's the only thing which distracted my love for this book. However, because the chapters are short, the reading process didn't seem unbearable. I took quite some time (not my usual speed) finishing this book. Even so, I couldn't help be amazed by the story. It's heart-warming to read, especially about Marie-Laure and her father's relationship. I love the miniature model building of the place they lived in built by her father. I love how her father trained Marie to memorise the streets and surroundings and not give up on her. 

It's crazy all the while I was reading this book, waiting for the moment for Marie and Werner to meet and later realised that it's not even the main thing of this piece of fiction. There seems to be something miraculous about the story which pulled me into reading it. The settings, the characters, the writings, the language, everything were so perfectly plotted and there's nothing much to complain about, even though I find Werner's ending surprisingly heart-breaking. 

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It's a beautiful, epic and miraculous read. 

Summer

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