One City, One Book 2015
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
Review by Steven J. Haydu
What a story! Short chapters are woven together across time and between characters. At first they seem to be disparate elements, a chapter on an orphan in Germany, and then a chapter starring a blind girl in Paris. War, cruelty, kindness and compassion ultimately bring them together. The radio winds its way through the narrative tying together two orphans. Saint-Malo is a city by the sea, and awe-inspiring for both Werner and Marie-Laure: “What I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins... It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen.” Werner Pfennig. “The ocean!...It sucks and booms and splashes and rumbles; it shifts and dilates and falls over itself; the labyrinth of Saint-Malo has opened onto a portal of sound larger than anything she has ever experienced.” Marie-Laure. This novel is a full and beautiful experience.
by Anthony Doerr
Review by Steven J. Haydu
What a story! Short chapters are woven together across time and between characters. At first they seem to be disparate elements, a chapter on an orphan in Germany, and then a chapter starring a blind girl in Paris. War, cruelty, kindness and compassion ultimately bring them together. The radio winds its way through the narrative tying together two orphans. Saint-Malo is a city by the sea, and awe-inspiring for both Werner and Marie-Laure: “What I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins... It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen.” Werner Pfennig. “The ocean!...It sucks and booms and splashes and rumbles; it shifts and dilates and falls over itself; the labyrinth of Saint-Malo has opened onto a portal of sound larger than anything she has ever experienced.” Marie-Laure. This novel is a full and beautiful experience.
