All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr

All the light we cannot see 

By Anthony Doerr 

Rating :4/5 

Genres : Historical Fiction, World War 2, Germany, France.

Its a beautiful story. Although it has some sad and deeply troubling aspects to it, the overall detached tone the narrator takes makes it bearable and informative. The plot alternates between the years 1940 where preparations for an upcoming war are going on and 1944 when the war is taking place in full force in Saint Malo, France. There are three main characters in the plot - one is a blind girl Marie LaRue whose childhood is shaped and nurtured by her loving father, the second is a mathematical and physics genius Werner who works for the German army but years for his sister and home where things are less violent, third is an old gem collector for the German army/museum and is suffering from a malignant tumor. Their paths evolve separately but there are subtle links occasionally before they get together under one roof battling the same war and suffering the same consequences. Its a lively story that keeps the reader guessing as it unfolds..it also has elements of unconditional love though short lived and very briefly felt. 

So, Marie LaRue is a blind girl and her father is her world. Her father and the Jules Verne books he gets her for her birthdays, the model houses he builds as puzzles for her to solve. He works at a near by museum as a key maker and teaches her how to navigate the world around her using her cane and not get lost. The love he had for her is something very touching and extraordinary - I mean not every parent can look at adversity like blindness in his child and not only accept it but put every effort to overcome it. :) Then the rumors of war and Germany occupying Paris start and the father takes his daughter and a precious stone from the museum(entrusted to his safe keeping) to hide away at his recluse brother's house in Saint Malo. After a while,  the father tries to get back to Paris but is captured enroute and shifted to a German prison camp - he eventually dies there. Werner is an orphan with a sister he adores and who is a scientific genius. He fears the life of a miner and joins a school where he gets to learn and practice science. He builds transmitters that are very advanced and are used in capturing enemies to Germany during the war. Although by nature very reflective and sensitive,  he does what he has to do in order to survive in the army. He and his team eventually get posted at Saint Malo France when the war happens. The gem collector Von Rumpel is battling with a serious tumor and he learns of a precious stone stored away in a Paris museum they could grant eternal life to the bearer. So he goes in chase of Marie's father whom he suspects to be carrying it and comes to the house she is living in in Saint Malo at the time of war. The war which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives has also taken those of our main characters..excepting Marie LaRue who lives on to be over a hundred years old! :) 

Werner falls in love with Marie when he comes to rescue her. He ends up dead thinking about going back to her and accidentally stepping on a land mine. But she gets back to her uncle and old life without even holding a trace of his memory or the way he helped her..it felt sad and his love felt vacant because it was not cherished and acknowledged. :/ I would have loved for her to have thought of him atleast..