Book #1 of 2016: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I can't tell you how many times I've meant to read this book and never did. So this year, I asked for it for Christmas from my parents (they usually give us each a book for Christmas) and I knew I had to get through it now! At first, I didn't really want to read this, because all I really knew about it was that it was a WWII novel about a young girl, and I felt like I'd read a lot of those lately (aka The Book Thief, Kate Morton's books, etc.). But I'd heard such good things about it that I knew it was worth checking out. And it was definitely worth it.

The book follows Marie-Laure, who is blind and lives with her father near the Natural History Museum in Paris, where he works as the principal locksmith. As she gets older, he spends a lot of time working with her to help her become independent and to be able to find her way around without him to guide her. And when the war comes, they escape to St. Malo, a small beach town where her great-uncle lives. The other principal character is Werner, a German boy living in an orphanage, who is interested in the natural world and wants to be able to figure everything out. His life is changed when he finds a radio in the trash and is able to get it to work, and he and his sister are able to listen to broadcasts from around Europe and to get a little bit of information and introduction to the outside world. He is sent to a paramilitary school and as the war gets closer to the end, he's sent out to use his math/engineering skills to track down other radio users. He and Marie end up in the same town, while St. Malo is being bombed by the Americans to get the Germans out, and their radios help their paths to cross.

I loved both of the characters' storylines in this book, but Marie-Laure's more so. She wasn't a typical "super-strong adolescent female character" which is so overplayed and tiring right now, but as she says in the book, she just got up every day and lived her life like she had to. She is very interested in the world around her as she can access it, through sounds and through tactile interaction, and she becomes alive as she goes to the beaches and touches the seashells there. I loved how Doerr writes about the seashells and about the things Marie touches, and I loved how he writes about the radio connections throughout the war. I feel a little silly that I didn't really understand the main focus on the importance of radio throughout the book as I read it--I was trying so hard to get through the story and to see what happens to Marie that I didn't put two and two together. But this morning I listened to this interview with the author and it's clear that was his main focus in writing it--to write about the French radio resistance against the Germans. Werner and Marie's uncle were on opposite sides of the radio fight and it all narrowed down to the end, where Marie is reading over the radio and Werner is listening to her over his receiver. It is almost magical how they end up connected through the radio at the end, and how it helps Werner to save Marie, and it doesn't feel forced at all.

I loved how every word in this book felt particularly chosen and purposeful. The story and the language were both beautiful. Doerr talks about how he had the idea for the book because he was thinking about what a miracle it is that we can talk to people we cannot see just by using little packets of light to send messages spinning through the air over radio waves (today using cell phones, back then using radio). There are so many beautiful points throughout the book and underlying messages. I think I should read it again, now that I know what happens, in order to get all of the little things from it.