"All The Light We Cannot See"

Redundant Subtitle: A Novel

I added Anthony Doerr's "All The Light We Cannot See" to my reading list after hearing about it on the radio. I remember that someone said it's a different take on a French World War II story. Besides that, I was going in blind.

I'd expected historical fiction, maybe something about the French resistance, but this is actually a fairy tale. All the pieces are here: the brilliant orphan, the blind girl, her inventor father, a tower, an ancient treasure, a curse.

One of the novel's unusual aspects is that time skips forward and backward between chapters. The book opens in 1944, but the next section jumps back in time, then forward again, then back but not quite as far, and so on. While I felt a couple of the skips were too long, for the most part Doerr uses them effectively to build suspense. For instance, we know the two main characters will meet, but where and why? When will we learn more about the curse? And toward the end, how can this all be wrapped up in just another couple chapters?!

Verdict: beautifully written and well-crafted, "All The Light We Cannot See" is worth the journey despite some pacing issues. Recommended.