Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 3 September 2015 | Page 19
WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE
Book Reviews
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review by Alyson Hilbourne
All The Light We Cannot See is the story of a blind girl, Marie
Laure and a young German orphan, Werner Pfennig.
Although their stories are entwined throughout the book they
only meet for a few hours over the years covered by the text.
Werner and his sister listened to radio stations during their
childhood, including broadcasts by Marie Laure’s grandfather
and great uncle. As time passes Marie Laure’s uncle works
for the resistance in France and Werner works as a radio
technician tracking the illegal broadcasts of people like him.
Marie Laure and Werner’s paths cross in the ruins of St Malo,
France, as World War Two enters its final days.
The story is beautifully told in short alternating chapters, one from Marie Laure’s point
of view and the next from Werner’s. Both perspectives manage to encapsulate the
feelings of the time: Marie Laure’s fear at being evacuated and ending up in an
unknown environment, where getting around is particularly difficult; Werner’s initial
pride and then disappointment in the special school he was sent to. The two main
characters are beautifully drawn, but so are the lesser characters.
The story moves apace, romping backwards and forwards though the years, and yet
Doerr’s style of writing is quite languid with long vivid descriptions full of sound and
smells. A poignant tale, beautifully written, and a book to savour.
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Review by Alyson Hilbourne
This is the second of Jandy Nelson’s books I have read
and like the first I very much enjoyed it. The Sky is
Everywhere is a young adult novel about a teenage girl,
Lennie, whose older sister dies suddenly leaving a big gap
in an already dysfunctional family.
The story plays out Lennie’s grief and tells of her
relationships with the people around her, including her
sister’s boyfriend, her grandmother, her uncle, her best
friend, and her own fledgling love affair.
The book is interspersed with notes that Lennie writes in
odd places such as on paper coffee cups, on benches,
receipts, tickets and bills and even carves into benches
and trees. The scribbles show the rapport between the sisters, played out in
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