Discussion Questions for All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

1. Whose story did you enjoy the most, Marie-Laure’s or Werner’s?
2. Was there any character you wanted more insight into?
3. Have you ever read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (or anything else by Jules Verne)?  Why do you think Doerr decided to make Verne’s fiction such a big part of this story?
4. After alternating between Marie and Werner’s stories, why do you suppose the author chose to tell the scene where they met entirely from Werner’s perspective?
5. The New York Times’s reviewer wrote: “Even allowing for the kill-or-be-killed values beaten into cadets at the place, Werner lets himself be seduced by the power newly bestowed upon him. He does nothing to stop the system that elevates him from destroying his best friend.”  Do you agree with that?
6. The Guardian‘s reviewer wrote: “Unfortunately, Doerr’s prose style is high-pitched, operatic, relentless. Short sharp sentences, echoing the static of the radios, make the first hundred pages very tiresome to read, as does the American idiom. Somehow it is strange to listen to the thoughts of Marie-Laure and Werner and the many other characters, both German and French, give forth such Yankee utterances as ‘Werner … you shouldn’t think big.’ Sidewalks, apartment houses, the use of ‘sure’ instead of ‘yes’ – all these cut across the historical background that Doerr has so meticulously researched.”  What was your impression of the writing?  Were you distracted by the things this reviewer mentions?
7. In contrast, the Washington Post‘s reviewer wrote: “Enthrallingly told, beautifully written and so emotionally plangent that some passages bring tears, it is completely unsentimental — no mean trick when you consider that Doerr’s two protagonists are children who have been engulfed in the horror of World War II.”  What do you think of this description?
8. All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2015.  The other finalists were Let Me Be Frank with You by Richard Ford, The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami, and Lovely, Dark, Deep by Joyce Carol Oates.  Have you read any of these other books?  Would you have awarded the Pulitzer to Doerr’s book?

For more questions, check out the publisher’s resources.

Want to share your own questions with us?