Pulitzer Prize Fiction Winner

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

Summary

The novel intercuts the lives of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl fleeing Paris with her father, and Werner, a gifted German orphan conscripted into the Reich's radio corps, as their paths converge in occupied Saint-Malo. Doerr writes in very short, image-driven chapters and braids the science of radio with a fairy-tale sensibility. The result is a tender, formally precise meditation on courage and connection in wartime.

Historical Context & Significance

The novel is noted for its extremely short chapters and its "radiant" prose, focusing on the way technology (radio) connected people during the war.