The Ritual Master Anthony Doerr’s bestselling novel, All the light we cannot see, made quite an impression on me. I simply cannot find my words to speak about it… so instead, I’ll take you on a walk in the footsteps of the characters, sprinkled with some beautiful quotes from the book. If you have read it, you’ll recognize places either from Paris or Saint-Malo. And if you haven’t, don’t worry, there will be no spoilers.
Welcome to another Book Walk episode ! I strongly recommend you watch the video first, and you’ll find all the quotes down below.
The miniature intersection of rue de Mirbel and rue Monge, for example, just a block from their apartment, is nothing like the real intersection. The real one presents an amphitheater of noise and fragrance : in the fall it smells of traffic and castor oil, bread from the bakery, camphor from Avent’s pharmacy, delphiniums and sweet peas and roses from the flower stand. On winter days it swims with the odor of roasting chestnuts; on summer evenings it becomes slow and drowsy, full of sleepy conversations and the scraping of heavy iron chairs.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
They start up the length of the rue Cuvier. A trio of airborne ducks threads towards them, flapping their wings in synchrony, making for the Seine, and as the birds rush overhead, she imagines she can feel the light settling over their wings, striking each individual feather.
Left on rue Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Right on rue Daubenton. Three storm drains four storm drains five. Approaching on the left will be the open ironwork fence of the Jardin des Plantes, its thin spars like the bars of a great birdcage.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
To really touch something, she is learning—the bark of a sycamore tree in the gardens; a pinned stag beetle in the Department of Etymology; the exquisitely polished interior of a scallop shell in Dr. Geffard’s workshop—is to love it.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
We rise again in the grass. In the flowers. In songs.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Eventually they climb sixteen steps into the Gallery of Mineralogy. The guide shows them an agate from Brazil and violet amethysts and a meteorite on a pedestal that he claims is as ancient as the solar system itself.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
That something so small could be so beautiful. Worth so much. Only the strongest people can turn away from feelings like that.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the globe . . . The sea is only a receptacle for all the prodigious, supernatural things that exist inside it. It is only movement and love; it is the living infinite.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.
It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.
― Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
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