Name: Toată lumina pe care nu o putem vedea
Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
ISBN: 9786067790542

Anthony Doerr

Roman om den tyske soldat Werner, som er ekspert i at opspore radiotransmission, den blinde franske pige Marie-Laure, og eftersøgningen af en uvurderlig juvel under 2. verdenskrig. Fantasifuld roman, som knytter videnskab, krig og poesie sammen

Toată lumina pe care nu o putem vedea

Nona G

This book, to me, is fantastic. Not a classic, maybe not one that I would re-read anytime soon, but definitely one that kept me engaged. Maybe don't read to much into the time it took me to finish it, it has more to do with the amount of free time I have than the book itself.

Historical novels, especially ones where the action takes place during the First and Second WWs, just speak to me. I find myself drawn to such novels out of instinct, don't necessarily seek them out. Somehow they just fly into my hand and then that's it... I get caught up into them. It's a good thing, I have done a lot of historical research because of them, stuff I have never learned about in school or have just forgotten about... so it's definitely a positive in my life.

Moving on... Another thing I love is novels that take place on different, alternating temporal planes. The then and the now. Kate Morton was the first to introduce me to this style of writing and now it seems to be everywhere, but I don't mind. It adds dimension to the action and keeps me on edge. 

This novel not only jumps from one time to another, but also from one character to another. The story is about two teenagers caught up in the whirlwind that is WWII - a blind French girl who is forced to run away from Paris with her father, in a small town on the coast, and a German soldier who has a passion for radios and somehow ends up in the same town, in search of Resistance members who radio broadcast illegally.

It's not necessarily a love story, though it could have easily become one, if the author gave into tropes. I appreciate that. It is, though, a story about survival in a hostile world that annihilates any idea of self, of soul, of feeling. It is a book about conservation, about losing and finding things, people and oneself.

I hated when the book ended. I had to take a break to mentally reset. It's so full of depth, of feeling, that it becomes heartbreaking. The characters are alive, well constructed, relatable. I ended up feeling sorry for the adolescent Nazis who were forced into that life without knowing what it entailed. The balance and objectiveness put into this book is outstanding. It would have been so much easier to write off the Germans as inherently bad, but the author managed to bring us characters on either side of the barricade that we can accept and learn to love despite their political affiliation.

The ending is bitter-sweet, which is perfect. I hate forced happy endings and there were no happy endings at the end of WWI. Not everyone came back. Not everyone survived. And those who did were affected by what they saw and lived and were never the same. 

The writing is spotless. I even loved the short chapters - since I read mostly on the subway, books with long chapters make me lose interest fats, as I have to leave things unfinished. This one was the perfect read, to me, it ticked all boxes. I cannot recommend it enough.

Toată lumina pe care nu o putem vedea

Reviews

Highlights