All the Light We Cannot See

Book Club #6!

About the Book:

All the Light We Cannot See

Summary: 

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Characters:

• Maurie-Laure leBlanc: blind girl growing up in Paris
• Daniel leBlanc: Marie-Laure's father, lockmaker at the Paris Natural History Museum
• Werner: orphan boy, radio prodigy
• Jutta: Werner's sister,
• Frau Elena: French woman runs the orphanage
• Gemologist seeking Sea of Flame diamond
• Housekeeper
• Uncle

Questions:

1. What do you think happened to Daniel, Marie's father, and who was his angel that delivered the letters?

2. Do you think the mayor made the right decision to surrender Saint Malo so quickly? Pros/Cons

3. What do you think the title means?

4. There were times characters questioned whether they were on the right or wrong side of the war. How would you determine who is right or wrong in war?

5. If you hear enemies were coming to bomb your town, what would be your course of action?

6. In the story, messages were passed from bread to radio. If you had to pass on a message what route would you take?

7. Is there any new technology that astounds you that you believe may be commonplace in the future?

8. Marie-Laure had to make quick decisions on who to trust, including strangers, how did she come to her decisions and in her place how would you decide who to trust?

Conversation Summary:

Discussion topics:

• title - radio waves, electricity and physics that are invisible to the naked eye, goodness of people in dark times, hope in tragedy
• author's writing style - beautifully descriptive, narrative jumps between characters and timelines
• do not listen to audiobook, confusing with character and timeline jumps
• author inspiration
• what happened to each character 
• personal disaster plans in case of war or natural disasters
• being in a position of power and integrity  
• struggles of being handicapped and needing to make quick judgements on who to trust

Next time do not pick a book that just won a big prize (like a pulitzer) because it's hard to find the book.

1/3 bears finished book and loved it

References:

1. Inspiration from Saint Malo and cell phones

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/25/314566791/world-war-ii-in-a-new-light-empathy-found-in-surprising-places