Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See by Worth Books

Author:Worth Books
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worth Books
Published: 2017-03-15T14:36:14+00:00

Ten: 12 August 1944

Chapters: Entombed; Fort National; Captain Nemo’s Last Words; Visitor; Final Sentence; Music #1; Music #2; Music #3; Out; Wardrobe; Comrades; The Simultaneity of Instants; Are You There?; Second Can; Birds of America; Cease-fire; Chocolate; Light

Werner listens to Marie-Laure read aloud, and reveals to Volkheimer that he knew about the transmitter weeks ago. It is hinted that Volkheimer knew he knew, and did nothing. Werner is upset: By not giving away the source of the transmitter, he saved this girl’s life, and now he will have to listen to her die. She is asking for help, saying a man will kill her.

By August 12, Marie-Laure has almost finished reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but von Rumpel is still in the house. The next day, after finishing the book, she decides to play the music loudly to draw the German to the attic, awaiting him with a knife in her hand. She cannot spend the rest of her life in the attic hiding while Saint-Malo falls. It is time for action.

Volkheimer is woken by the sound of music over the radio. This inspires him to build a protective barrier and throw a grenade at the corner where the stairs collapsed. The explosion blasts a small hole in the rubble, and Volkheimer and Werner are eventually able to escape. Volkheimer tells Werner to run to the girl while he finds food, and gives him a loaded rifle.

Von Rumpel hears the sound of Marie-Laure’s transmission above him and reaches the wardrobe, noticing the door through the back. At that moment, Werner enters the house, a trip wire that Etienne had installed earlier loudly dinging. Von Rumpel drops his candle and it rolls to the curtains, lighting them on fire.

Flames have begun to spread and Werner shoots the German. While Werner is figuring out how to open the wardrobe hiding the attic door, the narrative freezes in time, giving readers a snapshot of many people living through this war at that exact moment: Volkheimer is eating a can of yams with his fingers; Etienne, in prison, making a promise that if he and Marie-Laure survive the war, they will travel the world; von Rumpel’s wife, waking her children to attend mass; Jutta, dreaming of light settling across a field of snow; Hitler, drinking warm milk; soldiers from both sides of the fight carrying out their small individual parts in the greater story. Werner finally reaches Marie-Laure and realizes she is everything he always wanted to be and always wanted. They speak of her grandfather’s transmissions he listened to as a child, and they share a can of peaches while they wait for the bombing to end so he can help her flee the city.

Marie-Laure shows Werner the transmitter, and he finds among Etienne’s books a copy of the Audubon book of birds that Frederick so loved. He asks if he can take a page. They prepare to evacuate, and Marie-Laure stops at the grotto as they leave town, putting the

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