All the light we don't see
All the light that we do not see (English original title:. All the Light We Can not See ) is a novel by American author Anthony Doerr , who on May 6, 2014 Scribner published publisher. The German translation was published by CHBeck in 2014 . The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015 and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and a Dayton Literary Peace Prize that same year .
action
The novel by the American author Anthony Doerr tells the story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross in the hustle and bustle of World War II . The main action takes place in August 1944 in the northern French city of Saint-Malo, which is besieged by the Americans . The story of the two characters is drawn in regular flashbacks.
Paris, 1934: Marie-Laure LeBlanc is the daughter of the widowed locksmith of the Natural History Museum and often accompanies him to his work. Marie-Laure suffers from a rapidly progressing loss of her eyesight as a result of cataracts and becomes completely blind at the age of six. In order to enrich her life, her father made a true-to-scale wooden model of her Paris neighborhood, which Marie-Laure memorized by touch. M. LeBlanc spends hours leading his daughter to different places in the real neighborhood and from there letting her find her home without his help. For her birthdays, he always gives her hand-made puzzle boxes that can be opened after a clever sequence of steps. Her father gets her novels in Braille . Marie-Laure is particularly enthusiastic about the stories in her edition of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea .
Rumor has it in the Paris museum that the house is planning to exhibit “The Sea of Flames”. However, a legend has grown up around this immeasurably valuable blue diamond with dancing "red flames" in its center: a curse would lie on the jewel, according to which every owner would become immortal, but his loved one would experience unending misfortune.
Simultaneously in Germany: Werner Hausner (originally Werner Pfennig) grows up with his sister in an orphanage on the premises of the Zeche Zollverein . The leader, Ms. Elena, a Protestant nun from Alsace, teaches the children French with folk songs and stories. Werner finds a defective shortwave radio that he can repair and thereby discovers his natural talent for electrical circuits. Werner and his sister listen to a large number of radio programs, but are particularly enthusiastic about a science program that is broadcast regularly from France and is specially designed for children.
When the Nazis invaded France , Marie-Laure and her father moved from Paris to Saint-Malo in 1940 to find refuge with their great-uncle Etienne. Etienne, who suffers from a war neurosis from the First World War , spends his life withdrawn and never leaves his home. He shows Marie-Laure a radio station hidden under the roof, with which he and his brother Henri broadcast the children's program that Werner and Jutta liked to listen to. Unknown to Marie-Laure, her father was entrusted with “The Sea of Flames” or one of three exact copies. He and three other confidants were each given one of the jewels to protect them from the Germans. The wearer was left in the ignorance of whether he was carrying the real diamond or a worthless copy. Marie-Laures father hides his diamond in a wooden miniature from Etienne's house, which is part of a model of the city of Saint-Malo that he makes for Marie-Laure.
The father is arrested by the Germans after being seen measuring and drawing the city. He is held in a prison camp on suspicion of espionage and his daughter is left alone with Etienne and his housekeeper Madame Manec.
Reinhold von Rumpel, an Aryan expert on gemstones, who assesses the value of confiscated jewels, is assigned to “The Sea of Flames”. Those suffering from a malignant tumor are fueled by the legend of immortality and can locate the storage location of all four jewels. After identifying three copies, he goes to Saint-Malo, where he suspects the real diamond.
In the meantime, Madame Manec and other neighbors took part in the Resistance . When she fell ill and later died, Marie-Laure took over a daily trip to the bakery, where she received a piece of bread with notes hidden in it. Etienne reactivates his radio station and sends the information received.
Werner's technical talent gave him a place in a National Socialist talent program. He survived the harassment and the military drill at the National Political Education Institute in Schulpforta . One of his teachers, Professor Hauptmann, is delighted with Werner's above-average academic performance and supports him in addition to his lessons. Werner helps him develop a system for localizing illegal radio stations. Hauptmann arranges Werner's transfer to the Wehrmacht , where he helps track down illegal partisan stations. In Vienna he makes a mistake in identifying a radio antenna, which leads to the killing of a young girl and once again makes him doubt what he is doing.
In August 1944, Marie-Laures and Werner's paths cross. Werner is ordered to do the nightly transfers from Etienne to Saint-Malo. He realizes that Etienne is responsible for the children's programs that he used to listen to with his sister. Werner can track down the house, but hides this from his comrades. Marie-Laure, who has since found the diamond in her wooden model, is hiding from von Rumpel. Werner manages to save her from him and he brings her to safety. In this short time of encounter, both feel a strong bond. Shortly before they say goodbye, Marie-Laure lets the wooden house in which the diamond is hidden slide into the tide of the ocean in a grotto under the city wall. Werner, still ill, is picked up by Resistance fighters and handed over to American officials. On the way to recovery, he steps on a land mine at night that kills him.
In 1974, 30 years later, Jutta received information about Werner's death. She is given the wooden model of the house that was found at Werner's. Jutta travels to France with her son Max and meets with Marie-Laure, who is now working as a scientist in the natural history museum. Marie-Laure must find out that the wooden model was with Werner when Werner died and that it now contains the key to the grotto. The story ends in 2014: Marie-Laure is walking the streets of Paris with her grandson.
Reception through literary criticism
The book has inspired numerous readers and critics, especially in America. "All the Light We Cannot See" (original title) was voted one of the ten best books of 2014 by the New York Times.
“[...] Magical, fairytale connections are more important here than solid motivations. This is perhaps the recipe for success: Doerr combines the burden of history with the ease of storytelling. Too easy, some old Europeans will object. "
"All the Light We Cannot See" is more than a thriller and less than great literature. As such, it is what the English would call "a good read." Maybe Doerr could write great literature if he really tried. I would be happy if he did.
“All the light we don't see” is more than a thriller and less than great literature. It is what the English would call "entertaining reading". Perhaps Doerr could write great literature if he really tried. I would be happy if he did. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wolfgang Schneider: Pulitzer Prize Winner: The horror of history lurks around every corner . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . June 9, 2015, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 18, 2017]).
- ^ A b William T. Vollmann: 'All the Light We Cannot See,' by Anthony Doerr . In: The New York Times . May 8, 2014, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed April 18, 2017]).