All the Light We Cannot SeeAll the Light We Cannot See
What it's about
Marie-Laure, blind since six, lives in Paris with her father, who builds her a miniature of their neighborhood so she can learn its streets by touch. When the Nazis occupy France, they flee to her great-uncle's house in the walled seaside town of Saint-Malo, carrying something precious. Meanwhile Werner, a German orphan with a gift for fixing radios, is recruited into an elite Nazi academy and sent to track the Resistance. Their paths converge in the bombing of Saint-Malo in 1944.
Why it's worth reading
It's a beautifully written, deeply humane story about two children trying to stay good in a war, and it won the Pulitzer Prize while also becoming a huge bestseller. The short chapters make a long book fly by.
You'll love it if you liked
The Book Thief, The Women or Cloud Cuckoo Land
Good to know
It jumps between two timelines and two main characters, which takes a few chapters to settle into. The war violence is real but not graphic.
By the numbers
- Readers89 out of 100 · counts 40%+41
- Critics77 out of 100 · counts 32% (its stronger lane)+27
- Bestseller66 out of 100 · counts 14%+10
- Buzz3 out of 100 · counts 15%+0
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero.
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2015). #1 New York Times bestseller (3 weeks at #1). 4.30★ from 2.1M Goodreads ratings.
Where it ranks
- #9 of the 251 historical novels we rank
- #14 of the 666 modern books we rank
- #31 of the 1,405 books we rank
Won
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (2015)
Bestseller
- #1 New York Times bestseller (3 weeks at #1)
Shortlisted
- National Book Award (Fiction) finalist (2014)
Reads as
Moving
