All The Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr Paperback – Big Book, 23 April 2015

havent read it yet but looks cool

This is a very beautiful book and its something I will read over and over again.

page turner

There were only two hugely popular books that I had been disappointed in until now: Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and Atonement by Ian McEwan. I am afraid this book joins their company today! I have absolutely no idea what made it so popular and why this "masterpiece" won Pulitzer's Prize in 2015 but I really hate this book! The sad thing is that the writing is very good but the author's abysmal storytelling ruined it all for me!The book is nearly 600 pages long. All made up of very short chapters of 2-3 pages long. Just as you start to get into the story, the next chapter takes you into a completely different time period without any warning or prelude! In places, the book unexpectedly introduces random new characters in a completely unconnected fashion (and only for one chapter of 2-3 pages!) before the story jumps again to the main characters in the following chapter.I am not a stranger to difficult to read books or to stories made up of multiple strands and lifetimes of many characters across decades and sometimes even centuries of history but I hated this book!The author's writing has been ruined by his inability to tell the story in a compelling way that would be coherent and enjoyable to read! Such a shame but this is one hugely disappointing read!

I always think that a great book is one that makes you think, and that makes you question what you thought you already knew. That leaves you with new perspectives that stay with you long after you have finished reading. This book delivered in all these areas.The horror of WWII was hardly a groundbreaking subject, but this story manges to make you look at it in a way you may never have before.I fell in love with Werner's character from the beginning. He was so authentic and I really felt his pain and his struggle to accept the difficult decisions he has to make. A wonderful character who, even though he would be considered to be "the bad guy" by historical standards, is the most loveable and relateable in the novel. It is a testament to how good the writing is, to think that I was most invested in the fate of this young Nazi boy. The chapters surrounding his time at school were wonderfully descriptive, and equally horrific. They will stay with me for a long time.I do have to say that the book was rather long, and a bit slow to start, so it did take me a while to get into it. The storyline surrounding the sea of flames frustrated me slightly, as it seemed like little more than a plot accelerator. However, the well developed characters and insight into wartime Europe more than makes up for this.All in all, a great book.

I bought this book based on the huge number of 4 & 5 star reviews it got. However, it wasn't really anywhere close to being as outstanding as I expected. There isn't a great deal of dialogue from the characters, its predominately descriptive narrative, which although well written, made it hard to empathise with the characters. Along with the 1-2page length chapters with every chapter flipping between the separate storylines of the two main characters, coupled with the shunting back/forth in time to almost the end of the story and back to the beginning again, I found it disruptive and difficult to stick with.And although the closing chapters of the book, when the two main characters come closer to meeting, were much more engrossing than the initial 80% of the book, the very ending of Werner's story and the present day closure of Marie Laures story were so deflating, inconclusive and vague, I began to wonder if somehow I had managed to skip several chapters. I hadnt, the ending is loose & sorely disappointing given the investment in pursuing the characters to the end.

This is the finest novel I've read since Rohinton Mistry's ' A Fine Balance'. The books don't have much in common except that they're exceptional stories told by master storytellers. I am in awe of people who can be so imaginative and weave a tale with such original and endearing characters, capable of both complex and simple emotions. Authors who can plot a book like a jigsaw puzzle where eventually every piece will find its rightful place are a rarity indeed. The only fear I had on starting was that the very short chapters wouldn't allow me to inhabit the characters'worlds right away. But I was wrong there. After a few pages I was totally sucked in Marie's world and Werner's as well. A beautiful and intricate novel that no book lover can seriously think of overlooking.

This is one of the best books I have read for a very long time and is highly recommended. I bought the kindle version first and then didn't read it immediately so I didn't realise it was a Pullitzer prize winner (one of the advantages and sometimes disadvantages of electronic books being that you don't constantly see the cover or blurb) and didn't know what to expect. I was so impressed that I have now bought the "proper book", ie paperback version, so that I can lend it to family and friends and keep it to read again. The prose is delightful which makes reading it a pleasure despite the terrible circumstances that the main characters are caught in. Most importantly I felt empathy for all the characters (even the Nazi ones) because the author reveals their inner thoughts and dilemmas so beautifully. The image of the detailed models that the father makes for his blind daughter has really stayed with me. I will be reading other titles by this author.