JUNE 2014 - AudioFile
There’s something familiar and comfortable about Zach Appelman’s performance in this beautifully crafted audiobook. His clear, confident tone also features subtle warmth. His voice animates the story of Marie-Laure, a French girl, and Werner, a German boy, and their experiences during the period of WWII. The novel itself keeps to a brisk pace as it shifts back and forth between the main characters. Surprisingly, the pace makes for a story that is easily followed and immediately engaging. Details and images are elegant in their simplicity, and the dramatic history is tempered by humanity—thanks to both a skilled author and a masterful narrator. L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2015 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly - Audio
10/27/2014
Broadway actor Appelman delivers a moving performance in the audio edition of Doerr’s beautiful WWII novel. The story shifts back and forth in time, and alternates between the perspectives of two protagonists, Marie-Laure—a blind French girl whose locksmith father builds models of the city to help her adapt to her surroundings—and Werner Pfennig, a German orphan who is separated from his sister, Jutta, when he’s called to work for the Nazis as an engineer. The stories are both involving in their own right, as we track how the peaceful lives of a father/daughter and brother/sister are slowly disrupted by the rise of the Nazis. Reader Appelman helps convey the emotional tension of each scene with dialogue that is devastatingly moving, and his portrayal of Marie-Laure’s uncle, Etienne, is particularly effective. All and all, Appelman turns in a dramatic and well-paced performance of Doerr’s richly conveyed and heartbreaking period piece. A Scribner hardcover. (May)
Portland Oregonian - Alice Evans
Exquisite…Mesmerizing…Nothing short of brilliant.
M.L. Stedman
A tender exploration of this world's paradoxes; the beauty of the laws of nature and the terrible ends to which war subverts them; the frailty and the resilience of the human heart; the immutability of a moment and the healing power of time. The language is as expertly crafted as the master locksmith's models in the story, and the settings as intricately evoked. A compelling and uplifting novel.
The Seattle Times - David Laskin
Stupendous…A beautiful, daring, heartbreaking, oddly joyous novel.
Shelf Awareness
Endlessly bold and equally delicate…An intricate miracle of invention, narrative verve, and deep research lightly held, but above all a miracle of humanity….Anthony Doerr’s novel celebrates—and also accomplishes—what only the finest art can: the power to create, reveal, and augment experience in all its horror and wonder, heartbreak and rapture.
BBC - Jane Ciabattari
Intricately structured…All the Light We Cannot See is a work of art and of preservation.
Washington Independent Review of Books - Martha Anne Toll
To open a book by Anthony Doerr is to open a door on humanity…His sentences shimmer…His paragraphs are luminous with bright, sparkling beauty.
Christian Science Monitor - Yvonne Zipp
Doerr deftly guides All the Light We Cannot See toward the day Werner’s and Marie-Laure lives intersect during the bombing of Saint-Malo in what may be his best work to date.
Bustle.com - Rebecca Kelley
Doerr conjures up a vibrating, crackling world…Intricately, beautifully crafted.
NPR - Alan Cheuse
Doerr is an exquisite stylist; his talents are on full display.
Los Angeles Times - Steph Cha
A beautiful, expansive tale…Ambitious and majestic.
The Boston Globe - John Freeman
Doerr has packed each of his scenes with such refractory material that All the Light We Cannot See reflects a dazzling array of themes….Startlingly fresh.
Good Housekeeping
The whole enthralls.
New Yorker
Intricate… A meditation on fate, free will, and the way that, in wartime, small choices can have vast consequences.
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Tricia Springstubb
Vivid…[All the Light We Cannot See] brims with scrupulous reverence for all forms of life. The invisible light of the title shines long after the last page.
Aspen Daily News - Carole O'Brien
There is so much in this book. It is difficult to convey the complexity, the detail, the beauty and the brutality of this simple story.
Booklist (starred review)
A novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr’s magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. . . . Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably recreates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.
The Guardian (UK) - Carmen Callil
Magnificent.
The Missourian - Chris Stuckenschneider
Beautifully written… Soulful and addictive.
Amanda Vaill
Enthrallingly told, beautifully written…Every piece of back story reveals information that charges the emerging narrative with significance, until at last the puzzle-box of the plot slides open to reveal the treasure hidden inside.
Entertainment Weekly
Stunning and ultimately uplifting… Doerr’s not-to-be-missed tale is a testament to the buoyancy of our dreams, carrying us into the light through the darkest nights.
BookReporter.com - Michael Magras
A revelation.
Vanity Fair - Elissa Schappell
Anthony Doerr again takes language beyond mortal limits.
Deseret Morning News - Elizabeth Reed
Anthony Doerr writes beautifully… A tour de force.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Steve Novak
The craftsmanship of Doerr’s book is rooted in his ability to inhabit the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner…[A] fine novel.
People (3 1/2 stars) - Mary Pols
History intertwines with irresistible fiction—secret radio broadcasts, a cursed diamond, a soldier’s deepest doubts—into a richly compelling, bittersweet package.
Minneapolis Star Tribune - Josh Cook
Perfectly captured…Doerr writes sentences that are clear-eyed, taut, sweetly lyrical.
J.R. Moehringer
Doerr sees the world as a scientist, but feels it as a poet. He knows about everything—radios, diamonds, mollusks, birds, flowers, locks, guns—but he also writes a line so beautiful, creates an image or scene so haunting, it makes you think forever differently about the big thingsólove, fear, cruelty, kindness, the countless facets of the human heart. Wildly suspenseful, structurally daring, rich in detail and soul, Doerr’s new novel is that novel, the one you savor, and ponder, and happily lose sleep over, then go around urging all your friends to read—now.
O, the Oprah magazine - Hamilton Cain
Incandescent… a luminous work of strife and transcendence… with characters as noble as they are enthralling
Historical Novel Society
Sometimes a novel doesn’t merely transport. It immerses, engulfs, keeps you caught within its words until the very end, when you blink and remember there’s a world beyond the pages. All the Light We Cannot See is such a book… Vibrant, poignant, delicately exquisite. Despite the careful building of time and place (so vivid you fall between the pages), it’s not a story of history; it’s a story of people living history.
Jess Walter
All the Light We Cannot See is a dazzling, epic work of fiction. Anthony Doerr writes beautifully about the mythic and the intimate, about snails on beaches and armies on the move, about fate and love and history and those breathless, unbearable moments when they all come crashing together.
Frances Itani
"What a delight! This novel has exquisite writing and a wonderfully suspenseful story. A book you'll tell your friends about..."
Abraham Verghese
This jewel of a story is put together like a vintage timepiece, its many threads coming together so perfectly. Doerr’s writing and imagery are stunning. It’s been a while since a novel had me under its spell in this fashion. The story still lives on in my head.
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
Hauntingly beautiful.
San Francisco Chronicle - Dan Cryer
Gorgeous… moves with the pace of a thriller… Doerr imagines the unseen grace, the unseen light that, occasionally, surprisingly, breaks to the surface even in the worst of times.
USA Today - Sharon Peters
This tough-to-put-down book proves its worth page after lyrical page…Each and every person in this finely spun assemblage is distinct and true.
Booklist
A novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr’s magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. . . . Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably recreates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.
New Yorker
Intricate… A meditation on fate, free will, and the way that, in wartime, small choices can have vast consequences.
Booklist
A novel to live in, learn from, and feel bereft over when the last page is turned, Doerr’s magnificently drawn story seems at once spacious and tightly composed. . . . Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably recreates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.
Seattle Times - Mary Ann Gwinn
Doerr, a fabulous writer, pens an epic novel about a blind French girl and a German boy in occupied France and their struggles to survive World War II.
Library Journal - Audio
★ 08/01/2014
Zach Appelman narrates Doerr's tender World War II tale of two young people: Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, and Werner, who was orphaned by a tragic mine accident. Marie-Laure's father is the locksmith for a natural history museum, and when Paris falls, he and his daughter escape to the home of her great uncle Etienne in Saint Malo, carrying what may be a priceless diamond. Her father is imprisoned and soon Etienne and Marie-Laure become resistance fighters, sending clandestine radio transmissions. In Germany, Werner escapes the mines because of his mathematical ability and interest in radios and is sent to a training camp for Hitler youth. Werner is conflicted—he is receiving the education he wanted so desperately, but when confronted daily with injustice and brutality, he finally asks to leave. Instead, he is sent to the front. Using technology he helped develop, Werner is charged with finding and eliminating partisans such as Etienne and Marie-Laure. The listener knows that slowly, inextricably, Werner's and Marie-Laure's lives will intersect. But Doerr does not leave listeners in despair. Like light through the clouds, love, hope, and kindness peek through time and again. VERDICT Listeners must attend closely to this story of innocents caught up in the darkness of World War II. But if they do, they are rewarded with an excellent narration of a beautifully written story. ["The novel presents two characters so interesting and sympathetic that readers will keep turning the pages hoping for an impossibly happy ending," read the starred review of the Scribner hc, LJ 2/1/14.]—Judy Murray, Monroe Cty. Lib. Syst., Temperance, MI
JUNE 2014 - AudioFile
There’s something familiar and comfortable about Zach Appelman’s performance in this beautifully crafted audiobook. His clear, confident tone also features subtle warmth. His voice animates the story of Marie-Laure, a French girl, and Werner, a German boy, and their experiences during the period of WWII. The novel itself keeps to a brisk pace as it shifts back and forth between the main characters. Surprisingly, the pace makes for a story that is easily followed and immediately engaging. Details and images are elegant in their simplicity, and the dramatic history is tempered by humanity—thanks to both a skilled author and a masterful narrator. L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2015 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine