Good books make one think. Great books, on the other hand hand, make one reflect on one's place in this world. By that metric, All the Light We Cannot See is a fantastic book.
The novel by the American Anthony Doerr is set in wartime Europe and tells the story of two young people - one a blind French girl named Marie-Laure and another a German boy named Werner. The book alternates between their perspectives and tells their war stories, which are seemingly unconnected. However, there is a connection between these characters, and the book is a deep study in empathy and the ties that bind us despite our different nationalities and ideologies.
The book has clear shortcomings. The prose is often pretentious. One of the German characters is really more of a caricature, and Werner's character is not fully developed. Despite this, All the Light We Cannot See manages to move and inspire.
It does so by telling a heartbreaking story from the perspective of two lost souls struggling to survive and maintain their dignity in one of Europe's bleakest times. Pick up the book. You will not be able to put it down. Afterwards, you will appreciate all the light around you that you might not have seen before.
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