All the Light We Cannot See

When her father fails to return from his trip, Marie-Laure becomes angry and withdraws from everyone. Without her father, everything scares her, and she does not respond to Etienne and Madame Manec’s efforts to cheer her up. After 20 days, she is bereft and gives up hope.

One cold winter night, Werner and all the other boys are awakened at 2:00 am. They are taken to the courtyard, where a prisoner is bound to a stake in the ground. The boys take turns to throw a bucket of cold water on the prisoner. Every boy must take his turn. Werner longs to run away, but all he can think about is how everyone is trapped in the roles they are forced to play. By the time it is Werner’s turn, he just wants the nightmare to be over. He tosses his bucket of water onto the man’s chest.

Frederick refuses to throw water onto the prisoner, and he pours the water in his bucket onto the ground.

Madame Manec takes Marie-Laure to the beach, despite Etienne’s objections. For Marie-Laure, the beach and the ocean are wondrous marvels. She loves everything about the beach, and enjoys it even on a rainy, February day. She takes shells home for her uncle.

Sergeant Major von Rumpel approaches a prisoner—a jeweler in Paris, named Dupont—whom he believes created the fake Sea of Flames he found in the museum. He wants to know how many fakes were made, but he also hopes to get names.

The next page contains a letter to Marie-Laure from her father. He is in a prison work camp in Germany. His letter claims that they are fed wonderful food and that everything is fine. He assures her that he is always beside her.

The body of the dead prisoner is left in the courtyard for a week. Frederick is chosen as the weakest boy and beaten three times within nine days, but he still won’t quit the school; consequently, he is bullied constantly by the other boys. Werner feels tremendous guilt, but he does nothing to help or defend Frederick.

Over Etienne’s continued objections, Madame Manec walks Marie-Laure to the beach every morning. After each visit to the beach, Marie-Laure accompanies the housekeeper on her rounds, taking food to old people in need all over the town. Madame is a phenomenon of energy and industry. She makes delicious food out of almost nothing, and she feeds and nourishes everyone in need, including “crazy” Hubert Bazin, an unhoused man whose face was severely disfigured in the last war. Bazin tells Marie-Laure tales of the city’s history: of pirates and warlocks; of marauders and survivors. In March, Etienne turns 60 years old.

Dr. Hauptman, Volkheimer, and Werner successfully practice using the transceiver device outdoors, calculating a third point from two known ones. Hauptmann is pleased with Werner, and Werner revels in his praise.

Over tea and conversation, nine old women joke and sigh about resistance to the occupation in Madame’s kitchen. When challenged by Madame Manec to do more than complain, six women agree to act on their brave words. Marie-Laure wonders who among them will be brave and who will cave to the invaders.

Werner continues working with Hauptmann on locating the radio transceivers. He pleads with Frederick to go home, as the bullying intensifies, but instead Frederick announces to the dormitory that he understands that Werner cannot be friends with him anymore.

The old ladies put dog feces on German doorsteps, rearrange road signs to point in the wrong directions, and write “Free France Now” on their money, among other acts of defiance. Madame Manec, age 76, feels like a young girl again.

Von Rumpel goes to the doctor, who wants to perform a biopsy; however, von Rumpel is thinking only of the Sea of Flames. He learned from the jeweler Dupont that three copies of the diamond were made. So far, he has located one fake in the museum; three more diamonds remain for him to find.

One morning Werner wakes to find Frederick’s bed is empty. He can imagine what has happened, but risks getting in trouble by going to the infirmary anyway. There is blood everywhere, and the nurse tells Werner that Frederick has been sent to Leipzig for surgery. He won’t be returning to the school.

Daniel writes another letter to Marie-Laure. He is safe and is helping to build a road.

Hubert Bazin shows Marie-Laure and Madame a secret grotto underneath the walls of the city, where he used to play with the LeBlanc boys as a child. In the 12th century, the city used this grotto, now partially filled with sea water and covered in sea creatures, as a kennel for the mastiffs that protected the city’s beaches from invaders after dark. Hubert gives Marie-Laure the key to the grotto’s gate.

Another boy arrives at the school and takes Frederick’s bed, but Werner dreams of Frederick. Frederick has sustained brain trauma along with a broken jaw and a cracked skull. He will never recover, but no one is even questioned, much less punished, for what happened to him.

As the cadets grow more and more confident and Germany seems to be winning the war, only Werner’s position as Dr. Hauptmann’s aid keeps him safe. He is poor, an orphan, and a loner, with a trace of a French accent. He is suspicious, and he does not belong.

In a town nearby, Madame Manec meets a man named René, who asks her to note the license plates of the German vehicles and all the ships that come into the harbor. When she and Marie-Laure return home, they peel peaches for Madame to preserve. They imagine what their pseudonyms would be: Marie-Laure chooses the “whelk”, while Madame chooses to be the “blade.” They laugh.

Werner receives a letter from Jutta, saying that she now works in a laundry and asking him to write. She sends him his childhood notebook. He is overwhelmed with homesickness.

Marie-Laure overhears Madame and Etienne arguing. She asks him to help her in her efforts; Etienne is too afraid. He says she is making trouble for them. She tells him that doing nothing is the same as collaborating with the enemy. She challenges him, instead of assuaging his fears as she has done for the last 20 years, asking him if he doesn’t want to live before he dies. She wants him to read slips of paper that the baker’s wife bakes into their bread over the hidden radio. Etienne refuses.

Werner goes to Dr. Hauptmann and asks to be allowed to go home. His request is refused, and Hauptmann says that as a result of his ingratitude, Werner will no longer receive special treatment. Werner cannot leave, and he cannot bear to stay.

Hubert Bazin—the unhoused veteran with the disfigured face—disappears from town. Rumor has it that he has been arrested. He has been passing messages for the old lady resistance. The women gather in Madame’s kitchen. They are all afraid to continue. Madame is angry and tells them all to get out.

Though new banners and slogans adorn the walls of the school, food, electricity, and hot water run short. Though the radio proclaims that the war is going well, one by one the instructors of the school vanish into the war and are replaced by older, less capable instructors. Discipline and morale fall. More boys are notified that their fathers have died in the war. Werner faces his own disillusionment and fear; he sees that what the system requires is nothing less that the lives of every boy and man in Germany.

Dr. Hauptmann calls Werner to his office to announce that Hauptmann has been called to Berlin.

Two French policemen arrive, on behalf of the museum, to explain that Daniel LeBlanc was arrested and sent to a work camp. They search the house and tell Etienne that they could all be arrested because of three old French flags found rolled up in a closet. Etienne burns the flags in the fireplace and announces that Madame Manec can no longer help the French resistance while living there, nor will he allow her to take Marie-Laure with her on her secret errands.

The next page contains a letter from Werner to Jutta, in which most of the text has been blacked out by the censors. Life has gotten very difficult; he hopes she will understand.

In the following weeks, Madame Manec continues her activities, leaving Marie-Laure at home with Etienne. There is a lot of tension between Etienne and Madame, though both are perfectly polite to the other. Madame tells Etienne that when a frog is dropped into boiling water, he jumps out; however, when he is placed into cool water inside a pot and the heat is slowly applied, the frog cooks.

As a result of Dr. Hauptmann’s interference, 16-year-old Werner is sent to the front lines.

Madame Manec contracts pneumonia; her quarrel with Etienne is forgotten as he takes care of her during her illness.

The next page contains a letter from Daniel to Marie-Laure. He has received her parcels containing a comb, a toothbrush, and soap, though he was not allowed to keep the soap. He is working in a cardboard factory. If she wishes to understand, he instructs her to look “inside Etienne’s house, inside the house” (310).

Still in pursuit of the Sea of Flames, von Rumpel undergoes treatment for cancer that makes him very ill.

Madame Manec appears to recover. She continues her work, and Marie-Laure is certain that when they go out together, she is still up to her secret missions. They rest one beautiful afternoon in a field of Queen Anne’s lace; Madame tells Marie-Laure that she imagines that heaven is like a field on this sunlit afternoon.

Before going to the front, Werner visits Frederick in Berlin. The family has recently moved into the coveted top-floor apartment. Fanni, the maid, lets Werner in just as Frederick’s mother is leaving to play tennis. Frederick does not recognize him. He drools and can barely speak. He only draws spirals. Werner looks for the bird book for Frederick, but he is told that the family never had a book like that.

In late June 1942, Madame Manec suffers a relapse and dies.