Books
by Anthony Doerr
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About Grace |
David is crippled by the prophetic nature of his dreams until one night, with floodwaters surrounding his home, he has a nightmare in which he fails to save his baby daughter, Grace. Believing this will somehow save her, he flees and beaches up on a remote Carribbean island forever tormented by not knowing if she survived. After two decades he musters the strength to find out . . . Doerr's first novel, a feast of lyrical, descriptive prose, full of the promise of things to come.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 107 Winter 2023) |
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All the Light We Cannot See |
In spite of the current spate of fiction and non-fiction centring on stories from both world wars, this one manages to engage and beguile. The overlapping stories of two young people are deftly conveyed: one a blind French girl who flees the German occupation of Paris on an extraordinary mission with her father, and the other an exceptional young German boy, orphaned and in the grip of the Hitler war machine. Much more than a war story!
Ed. note: Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
(Margaret Teh - bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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All the Light we Cannot See |
The bare bones: WWII, the parallel, back and forth, stories of blind French girl Marie-Laure and German orphan radio buff Werner, fate bringing them together in the siege of S.Malo in 1945. The bones are fleshed out with gripping story telling, characters you care about and luminously imaginative writing – how about 'flames scamper up walls'? This is not a new book (2015 Pulitzer Prize winner) but definitely worth finding. I couldn't put it down.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 108 Spring 2023) |
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Cloud Cuckoo Land |
Somewhere in the future, Konstance is lost in Outer Space; in 1453 an orphaned girl and a disfigured boy strive to escape the siege of Contantinople; in 2020 Idaho, a young misfit plots revenge on an uncaring world - all share a link with an ancient Greek text describing a lowly shepherd's search for the perfect state. You need to concentrate as the narrative shifts from one perspective to another but just relax and let Doerr's gift of story-telling and descriptive prose keep those pages turning.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 103 Winter 2022) |
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