Summary The Germans arrive in Saint-Malo, and Marie-Laure’s father won’t let her leave the house because it is too dangerous. Although he tells her they will return to Paris soon, they have no timeline for their stay. Marie-Laure spends her time with Etienne, imagining other places as he reads. One […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “The Boches” to “Perfumer”Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “Occuper” to “Vienna”
Summary Marie-Laure and her father settle into the house of her great-uncle Etienne. They learn that the Germans are occupying France, and Marie-Laure struggles to understand what this means. After three days in the house, she finally meets Etienne, who is kind but not entirely in touch with reality. Meanwhile, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “Occuper” to “Vienna”Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “Chateau” to “You Have Been Called”
Summary Two days after leaving Paris, Marie-Laure and her father reach the town of Evreux. They are supposed to meet Francois Giannot, a friend of the museum director who will take the Sea of Flames diamond. When they arrive, however, they learn that Giannot has fled to London. They break […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART THREE: June 1940 “Chateau” to “You Have Been Called”Summary and Analysis PART TWO: 8 August 1944
Summary The novel returns to 1944, when the bombing of Saint-Malo has just begun. The Hotel of Bees, where Werner hides in the basement, is struck by a bomb. Werner is temporarily knocked out; as he comes to, he realizes that his head is injured and that he has been […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART TWO: 8 August 1944Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Flight” to “Exodus”
Summary Marie-Laure’s father is called away to speak with the museum director, and when he returns he tells Marie-Laure they need to leave the city immediately. They go to a train station crowded with people trying to evacuate. After waiting all night for a train, they decide to travel on […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Flight” to “Exodus”Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Rumors” to “Making Socks”
Summary Rumors of Germany’s invading France become reality, and Marie-Laure and her father prepare to evacuate Paris. Marie-Laure is afraid to leave everything she has known, all the more afraid because a group of boys tauntingly tell her that the Germans will rape her if they catch her. Werner joins […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Rumors” to “Making Socks”Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Light” to “The Principles of Mechanics”
Summary After struggling week after week to navigate her neighborhood based on her father’s model, Marie-Laure finally succeeds in making her way home without help. Each year on her birthday, her father gives her books written in Braille and wooden puzzle boxes with candy hidden inside. Marie-Laure hears more rumors […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Light” to “The Principles of Mechanics”Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle” to “Something Rising”
Summary Part One travels back in time ten years. Marie-Laure, living in Paris, learns from the tour guide at her father’s museum about a valuable diamond called “the Sea of Flames.” Until it is thrown into the sea, the stone is supposedly cursed so that its owner will live forever, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART ONE: 1934 “Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle” to “Something Rising”Summary and Analysis PART ZERO: 7 August 1944
Summary All the Light We Cannot See begins during the final year of World War II. Hours before Allied airplanes bomb the French city of Saint-Malo, they drop leaflets that warn the inhabitants to evacuate. The story’s two protagonists, 16-year-old Marie-Laure LeBlanc and 18-year-old Werner Pfennig, are introduced. Neither of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PART ZERO: 7 August 1944Character List
Major Characters Marie-Laure LeBlanc The daughter of a Paris museum locksmith, Marie-Laure goes blind when she is 6 years old. Shortly after she turns 12, she and her father evacuate Paris and move to her great-uncle Etienne’s house in Saint-Malo. Her father is arrested, leaving behind a wooden model of […]
Read more Character List