All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
★ Top 10 book of 2014 · #6 on Best Books of 2014
A blind French girl and a German orphan gifted with radios live parallel lives during World War II. Their separate struggles to survive eventually bring them together in occupied Saint-Malo, on France's Brittany coast.
Best for: Readers who enjoy ambitious, beautifully written historical novels set during World War II
All the Light We Cannot See is #6 on BookWard's Best Books of 2014, out of 66 2014 books that cleared our data bar.
What All the Light We Cannot See is about
Two young people live through the Second World War far apart, and the novel slowly draws them toward the same place. Marie-Laure LeBlanc, blind since the age of six, grows up in Paris, where her father, a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History, builds her a small model of the city so she can find her way by touch. When Germany invades France, they flee to Saint-Malo to stay with her great-uncle Etienne. Meanwhile Werner Pfennig, an orphan from a coal-mining town, has a gift for fixing radios that wins him a place at a harsh Nazi school.
Anthony Doerr moves back and forth in time, setting scenes from the 1944 battle for Saint-Malo among earlier years beginning in 1934. A legendary diamond and a gemologist hunting for it add tension. The book is admired for its lyrical prose and rich sensory detail. Readers who enjoy reflective, beautifully written historical fiction about war, connection and human resilience will find it rewarding.
All the Light We Cannot See on the Best Books of 2014
All the Light We Cannot See came out in 2014. Of the 66 books first published in 2014 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #6 on our Best Books of 2014 list.
Why it made the list: 1,431 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (83 ratings); 58 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2014 list
- Zero to One Peter A. Thiel, #4
- After (After Series, Book 1) Anna Todd, #5
- Ugly Love Colleen Hoover, #7
- Milk and Honey Rupi Kaur, #8
See all Best Books of 2014 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2013 Best Books of 2015.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 1,242 want to read it, 58 are reading it now and 131 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.3 out of 5 from 83 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 88 | 55% |
| Reader love | 86 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 83 | 20% |
Questions about All the Light We Cannot See
When was All the Light We Cannot See published?
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was first published in 2014.
Was All the Light We Cannot See one of the best books of 2014?
All the Light We Cannot See is #6 on BookWard's Best Books of 2014, out of 66 2014 books that cleared our data bar. 1,431 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (83 ratings); 58 are reading it right now.
Why is All the Light We Cannot See on the Best Books of 2014 list?
1,431 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.3 out of 5 (83 ratings); 58 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2014
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before Jenny Han, #1
- The Long Haul Jeff Kinney, #2
- Surrounded by Idiots Thomas Erikson, #3
- Zero to One Peter A. Thiel, #4
- After (After Series, Book 1) Anna Todd, #5
- Ugly Love Colleen Hoover, #7
See the full Best Books of 2014, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
Find your own best books
Add what you have read, rate it, and BookWard will recommend what to read next.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.