All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

“I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads. It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.” 

 -― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See 

Anthony Doerr is a genius. A beautifully crafted story.... Lots of short chapters- literary morsels I wanted to savour- but towards the end couldn't help but to stuff them into my face. 

I normally don't enjoy war/historical fiction but something drew me to this book and I'm so glad I took a chance on it. 

Marie-Laure is a little blind french girl living in Paris during World War II. Her father, who adores Marie-Laure, works as a clever locksmith for Paris's Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. Werner is a very small-for-his-age german child prodigy. Dangerously curious for his time, and too bright for his own good, he gets whisked away to a german technical school for boys, a place where his very humanity is put to the limit as his superiors try to strip him of any individuality or critical thinking. Their paths end up intertwining in a beautiful and slightly magical way. 

I give this book 10/10 seashells.

I am really trying to venture outside of my reading comfort zone. I am normally attracted to literary "junk-food" if you will. Cheap, short, easy reads where the story- maybe not very cleverly developed but certainly sensational- draws you in until you can't book the book down. Not because it's good... but because it's intense and addictive and gets you high. But I'm craving something a little more satisfying. Something more in-depth and real. I want dynamic characters and interesting plots. I don't want to guess what is going to happen and be right. I want to be surprised. 

Well, I really hope you will give this book a chance. If you do read it, or have read it before, please let me know what you think!