It's almost as if an editor suggested that a rather traditional, forward moving-narrative might seem too old-fashioned - and urged the author to jazz it up by zig-zagging back and forth over the course of a decade or so. There's nothing like this variety of plot for creating suspense and expectation on the part of a reader.Įxcept that right from the start, the timeline of the plot lies broken into annoying fragments, for no good narrative reason that I can discern. Here, the parallel tracks of the main characters come dramatically close to intersecting. Werner, meanwhile, has been perfecting his technical skills, and as the war becomes more of a struggle for the Wermacht he earns a post on the Western Front - in Saint-Malo. They arrive in Saint-Malo and take up residence in the house of an eccentric relative, where the father hides his treasure, almost in plain sight. The museum director has charged her father with caring for and hiding what may be the most valuable gem in the entire collection, a giant blue diamond known as the Sea of Flames that bears a legendary curse. When the German Army takes Paris, Marie-Laure and the locksmith head out on the road. The other is a blind French girl named Marie-Laure, whose father is the locksmith in charge of all the keys and vaults at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.

It focuses on two main characters, one a German soldier-to-be, an orphan named Werner who rises in the ranks because of his talent for electricity in general - and radios in particular. The book takes place in Europe - in three locations, mainly - Hitler's Germany, Paris, and the walled seaside town of Saint-Malo in Brittany, from the mid-1930s to the roaring and murderous years of World War II. No book I've read all year underscores the distinctions between the long form and the short story more than the award-winning story writer Anthony Doerr's new novel All the Light We Cannot See.

Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title All the Light We Cannot See Author Anthony Doerr

All the light i cannot see