ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE HARPER — ANTHONY DOERR

A beautiful stunningly ambitious 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 has been blind since the age of six Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home But when the Nazis invade father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret Werner is a German orphan destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father s life until he discovers a knack for engineering His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering At the same time far away in a walled city by the sea an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home But all around him impending danger closes in Doerr s combination of soaring imagination and meticulous observation is electric As Europe is engulfed by war and lives collide unpredictably All The Light We Cannot See is a captivating and devastating elegy for innocence

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever For Marie Laure blind since the age of six the world is full of mazes The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood made by her father to teach her the way home The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History The walled city by the sea where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner a German orphan destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth In this magnificent deeply moving novel the stories of Marie Laure and Werner illuminate the ways against all odds people try to be good to one another