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Summary - All the Light We Cannot See: Novel by Anthony Doerr
Marie-Laure and her father live in Paris, where he works for the Museum of Natural History. She goes blind because of cataracts, and her father builds her a wooden replica of their neighborhood to help her navigate. As the Germans approach, the museum entrusts him with a valuable diamond named the Sea of Flames and asks him to deliver it for safe keep.
Werner and Jutta are orphans growing up in Zollverein, Germany. Werner is interested in science and fixes a broken radio uses it to listen to science lectures from France. His fate changes when he repairs a Nazi official’s radio and he offers him to study at a Nazi school in Schulpforta.
Marie-Laure and her father move to Saint-Malo and start living with her great-uncle Etienne. Her father builds a model of the town and hides the diamond inside the replica of Etienne’s house. The Germans confiscate all the radios in Saint-Malo, but Etienne manages to keeps one hidden in his attic. Marie-Laure’s father gets arrested and sent to a prison camp in Germany.
At Schulpforta, Werner’s technical genius is recognized by the science teacher, Dr. Hauptmann, who trains him to calculate the location of radio broadcasts using trigonometry.
At Saint-Malo, Etienne and Marie-Laure decide to join a group of women to fight for the French resistance against Nazi occupation. Marie-Laure receives loaves of bread with slips of paper with Allied intelligence baked inside and Etienne broadcasts the information them using his radio. The Germans find out and Etienne gets arrested.
Werner joins a special team that tracks down anti-German radio broadcasts and kills the broadcasters. When his team is called to Saint-Malo, Werner hears a broadcast and is reminded of the French professor’s broadcast he listened to in his youth. Instead of telling his team, Werner locates it himself. He finds Marie-Laure, and falls in love with her.
When the Allies bomb Saint-Malo, Werner and his team leader, Volkheimer, get trapped in the basement of a hotel. Marie-Laure hears a German officer von Rumpel, entering the house looking for the diamond and she hides in the attic. Marie-Laure begins broadcasting from there and Werner hears her signal. She alerts him about the danger she is in. Werner escapes the rubble and rescues Marie-Laure by killing von Rumpel.
Werner and Marie-Laure part ways after putting the diamond and the model of Etienne’s house in an ocean grotto. Marie-Laure reunites with Etienne and they move to Paris while Werner is taken prisoner by the Allies and grows ill and gets killed.
Decades later, an organization gives Werner’s belongings to Volkheimer, who gives them to Jutta. She goes to Saint-Malo to learn about her brother’s last days alive, where she gets information about Marie-Laure, who now works at the Museum of Natural History. Jutta meets Marie-Laure, and gives her the model house. She finds the key to the grotto gate wonders what Werner did with the Sea of Flames. The narrator reveals that Werner left the diamond in the grotto.
Many years later, Marie-Laure goes to a park with her grandson, and muses over her past.
Click the Buy Now With One Click Button, and learn everything about All the Light We Cannot See .
Werner and Jutta are orphans growing up in Zollverein, Germany. Werner is interested in science and fixes a broken radio uses it to listen to science lectures from France. His fate changes when he repairs a Nazi official’s radio and he offers him to study at a Nazi school in Schulpforta.
Marie-Laure and her father move to Saint-Malo and start living with her great-uncle Etienne. Her father builds a model of the town and hides the diamond inside the replica of Etienne’s house. The Germans confiscate all the radios in Saint-Malo, but Etienne manages to keeps one hidden in his attic. Marie-Laure’s father gets arrested and sent to a prison camp in Germany.
At Schulpforta, Werner’s technical genius is recognized by the science teacher, Dr. Hauptmann, who trains him to calculate the location of radio broadcasts using trigonometry.
At Saint-Malo, Etienne and Marie-Laure decide to join a group of women to fight for the French resistance against Nazi occupation. Marie-Laure receives loaves of bread with slips of paper with Allied intelligence baked inside and Etienne broadcasts the information them using his radio. The Germans find out and Etienne gets arrested.
Werner joins a special team that tracks down anti-German radio broadcasts and kills the broadcasters. When his team is called to Saint-Malo, Werner hears a broadcast and is reminded of the French professor’s broadcast he listened to in his youth. Instead of telling his team, Werner locates it himself. He finds Marie-Laure, and falls in love with her.
When the Allies bomb Saint-Malo, Werner and his team leader, Volkheimer, get trapped in the basement of a hotel. Marie-Laure hears a German officer von Rumpel, entering the house looking for the diamond and she hides in the attic. Marie-Laure begins broadcasting from there and Werner hears her signal. She alerts him about the danger she is in. Werner escapes the rubble and rescues Marie-Laure by killing von Rumpel.
Werner and Marie-Laure part ways after putting the diamond and the model of Etienne’s house in an ocean grotto. Marie-Laure reunites with Etienne and they move to Paris while Werner is taken prisoner by the Allies and grows ill and gets killed.
Decades later, an organization gives Werner’s belongings to Volkheimer, who gives them to Jutta. She goes to Saint-Malo to learn about her brother’s last days alive, where she gets information about Marie-Laure, who now works at the Museum of Natural History. Jutta meets Marie-Laure, and gives her the model house. She finds the key to the grotto gate wonders what Werner did with the Sea of Flames. The narrator reveals that Werner left the diamond in the grotto.
Many years later, Marie-Laure goes to a park with her grandson, and muses over her past.
Click the Buy Now With One Click Button, and learn everything about All the Light We Cannot See .
23 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 17, 2016
4 people want to read
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February 7, 2017
Beautifully written heartbreaking story. This is one I am sure I will revisit.
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