Anthony Doerr was born in 1973, and grew up outside Cleveland. He has, to date, written two collections of short stories and two novels - the second of which is "All the Light We Cannot See". It was first publishedin 2014, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book took about 10 years to research and write.

The story revolves around two characters - Marie Laure and Werner. Marie Laure was brought up by her father, Daniel, her mother having died in childbirth. Daniel worked at the Natural History Museum in Paris, and was a very gifted locksmith. In 1934, when Marie Laure was six, she lost her eyesight. Unsurprisingly, this makes life very difficult for the pair, but a combination of Daniel isn't about to give up on his daughter. He constructs a scale model of their neighbourhood iin Paris, allowing Marie Laure to learn her way about through touch. Danie, after a while, starts asking her to lead him home from various points - overwhelming at first, but she eventually learns to cope. Daniel continues building models, of a sort, for his daughter - every year, as part of her birthday present, she receives an elaborate puzzle box as part of her birthday present. of course, there is more trouble on the way for Marie Laure and her father - when the Germans invade France in 1940, father and daughter head for St Malo, where Daniel's uncle, Etienne, lives.

The second lead character is Werner Pfennig - only eight years old, when Marie Laure lost her eyesigt in 1934. Werner and Jutta, his younger sister, grew up in an orphanage in Zollverein, a cola-mining town close to Essen. (Their father, in fact, had died down the mines). Frau Elena, who runs the orphanage, is a French immigrant and is the closest thing to a mother the pair will ever have known. The orphanage, however, is woefully under-resourced so Werner scavenges whatever around the streets and from the shops. One day, Werner and Jutta find a broken radio
abandoned in the streets. They bring it home and, discovering a natural talent for things mechanical, Werner manages to fix it. The pair listen to whatever late-night broadcasts they can - the programmes delivered by a French professor on the world of science becomes a firm favourite. Werner's natural ability soon sees him doing odd jobs for the neighbours. Unfortunately, his ability soon earns him a place at a Nazi military school. Werner manages to ignore the bigger picture, by focusing on his equipment and the science of what he's doing – his interest in what he's doing matches his ability. Jutta, on the other hand, knew exactly what was going on in the world and disapproved of Werner's actions from the outset.

At over 500 pages long, it’s fair to say that “All the Light We Cannot See” isn’t a short book. However, it is a real page-turner and, with the individual chapters being so short – most would only be a few pages long – it’s very easy to just keep on reading. The characters too were very easy to care for, Jutta and Marie Laure in particular. (Frederick, a schoolfriend of Werner’s, also deserves a mention – he displayed more backbone than most teenagers in his situation would have been capable of). Very much recommended.

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