I once wrote a review of this book saying that I had read half of this book and that I would later write a better review of it once I had finished this book. Well, I have finally gotten around to reading the whole book and what a book it was. Set during World War II, it centers mainly on the characters of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who is between the ages of twelve and sixteen and Werner, a German boy who is between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
Marie-Laure's father is the locksmith at the National History Museum in Paris. He builds her a model of the area of the streets between their apartment and the museum so she can feel with her fingers the path to the museum and learn to find her way around in the real world. For her birthday he buys her the first half of the book Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea to read in braille.
There is a diamond called the Sea Of Flames which is hidden deep within the vaults of the museum. It is said to give the keeper everlasting life, yet also kill off everyone and everything the keeper loves. It is a cursed stone. When the Germans entered France the museum director gives three stones, two copies and one real one to three men, one of which is Marie-Laure's father and they are to take the stones to a safe location. When they arrive at the location to give the stone to the man who is to get the stone to safety, he has already left for London. So Marie-Laure and her father go ahead with their plans to go to the island of Saint-Malo to stay with his Uncle Etienne who is said to have gone a bit crazy after World War I and has never left his house.
When they arrive they are met by the elderly Madame Manec who is a wonder in the kitchen and keeps things running smoothly and is a godsend. Her father builds her a model of the city just like he did back home just in case she needs to learn to go outside, though he refuses to let her go outside now that the Germans have taken over the island. Uncle Etienne reads to her when he is up to it and the two of them get along rather well. Then Marie-Laure's father gets a telegram asking that he come back to Paris. He does not know if this is a trap so he leaves the stone behind hidden carefully away inside the model. He ends up getting arrested and sent to a camp. Madam Manec begins to form a committee to try to do small things to foil the Germans, but soon they become bigger things and they want Etienne to help with his radio up in the attic but he refuses to get involved or risk Marie-Laure.
Werner and his sister Jutta are orphans in an orphanage run by Frau Elena a sweet loving woman who speaks German with a French accent since she is from Alsace. He is a bright boy who is good with mechanical things. When he finds a broken down radio he gets it working again and the other kids get to listen to it. At night he and Jutta listen to this Frenchman who gives lessons and plays a bit of music. It turns out that this Frenchman is Marie-Laure's grandfather and her great-uncle Etienne plays the recordings on his radio for others to hear. When he finds a book on math, he teaches himself higher levels of math like trigonometry.
Soon one person hears about his ability to fix things and he is off fixing radios for everyone in the town. When he fixes the radio of an important man in the military, he recommends Werner for a fancy military school. Jutta is against him going there for fear of him becoming a Nazi. The school is harsh and the friend he makes there is a weak boy in the ways that matter to them, but he is one who teaches Werner a lesson. Soon he is off to war as a radio operator questioning everything.
The book goes back and forth beginning with the year 1940 going forward and toward a day in 1944 when the lives of these two will finally meet along with a third, a Sergeant Major von Rumpel who is searching desperately for the Sea of Flames for he believes it will cure his cancer. He is also a gemologist and it is quite a prize. In 1944 the Americans are bombing the island to pieces as the Germans are returning fire. Marie-Laure is alone in the house and Werner is with his men in the cellar of a hotel. This book will show that not all Germans were evil Nazis and not all French soldiers were great heroes. Some of the French worked with the Germans and some worked against them and some did nothing at all. It was a complicated time with no easy answers. Do I believe that a piece of jewelry can be cursed? Yes, I do. This one certainly was. This was a very long book and at times a bit difficult to get through. Some may have problems with the going back and forth through time, but I saw that as a plus. It kept the action going. I highly recommend this book. It was worth the long nights of reading.
Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/All-Light-We-Cannot-See-ebook/dp/B00DPM7TIG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526057596&sr=8-1&keywords=all+the+light+we+cannot+see
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