Published in 2014, Anthony Doerr’s poignant novel All the Light We Cannot See is an epic story about the persistence of love in the face of a terrible war.
The novel follows two main characters, Marie-Laure and Werner, whose lives meet for a short moment during the second World War. Marie-Laure is a blind teenager who is forced to flee with her father to the French port city Saint-Malo after the start of the German invasion of France. Werner is a German orphan whose gift with radios grants him a spot in Hitler’s army.
The story is told through short vinyets, alternating between characters and time. Switching between timelines drives the plot forward, preventing the long novel from dragging pace wise. All the Light We Cannot See examines morality, action, and virtue under unimaginable circumstances. What kind of person do we become under a facist dictatorship and what power do we have over our actions?
To Doerr, it’s complicated. While the consequences may be extreme, the novel argues that as humans, we have a certain obligation to grant empathy and compassion to our fellow humans. The novel does not excuse violence in wartime and offers up opportunities of rebellion. When Marie-Laure joins the French Resistance with the help of Werner, we understand that although circumstance matters, it does not have the ultimate say over our actions. We decide what is important to us and what is worth the sacrifice.