The innocence of childhood is one of the spoils of war; perhaps even the most tragic of them all. As a race, we still see no end to strife of such unimaginable proportions all around us. With each strife, we blindly go on adding more and more youth robbed of something precious and irreplaceable.
As wartime stories go, All The Light You Cannot See is a gem. This is not the first book to focus on children growing amidst a battle. Nor is it a pioneer in shining a light on survival during times of extreme duress. But, somewhere, along those well-trodden lines, the story just lights up with hope. The title is ambiguous, and at first glance, appears to pertain to a particular aspect only. Actually, it is a wider epiphany.
All The Light chronicles the parallel lives of two young children from warring factions. Both are deprived of a perfect life in a way (aren't we all, really?) and get sucked into the maelstrom of the Second World War. As they push their way through the darkness, it is their fantasies that save them. They grow, in body and in mind, with both help and misdirection from adults. But nothing is as good a lodestone to them as their early creative journeys, developed during times of relative calm. Although seen primarily through the lens of these two characters, the story is set into definition by a handful of other brilliantly developed players, who complete the ebb and flow of life in war.
This story has something of the spirit of 'Life Is Beautiful' coursing through it. At times, it is painful to have to read page after page of the plight of these children, and of the countless men and women, who would so love to read by the fireplace, carve toys or cook in warm kitchens, rather than cower in fear of unseen, cruel forces, on both sides of the line. But with the children, somehow, even when things look beyond help, there always lingers a glint of hope and joy.
We live in a world, which seems to forget and forego the outcome of something as destructive as a war. We still live in a world, where we will, perhaps willingly, jump into the fire, not sparing a thought for all those souls, who not only were not party to our disagreement, but are also vehemently against our course of action, would be pulled all in. Lives are ruined for generations to come. Explanations and excuses sully relations. A memory lingers, from mothers to daughters to granddaughters, of a lifetime wasted.
All The Light is Anthony Doerr's second novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2015, besides plenty of other recognitions, and worldwide acclaim. Having read it last year through a soggy monsoon, it remains a glowing lamp in my mind, and a constant reminder of the power of a good story.
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