Discover Well-Read Black Girl Books and the projects reshaping publishing →

Handpicked recommendations to other books that have a similar writing style or theme to All the Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Readers' Rating (93):
  • First Published:
  • May 6, 2014, 448 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 2017, 544 pages
  • Reviewed by BookBrowse Book Reviewed by:
    Naomi Benaron
  • Genres & Themes
  • Publication Information
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Beyond the Book:
  Saint Malo

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full read-alike results are for members only

If you liked All the Light We Cannot See, try these:

  • The Curse of Pietro Houdini jacket

    The Curse of Pietro Houdini

    by Derek B. Miller

    Published Jan 2025

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    From the Dagger Award–winning author of Norwegian by Night comes a vivid, thrilling, and moving World War II art-heist-adventure tale where enemies become heroes, allies become villains, and a child learns what it means to become an adult—for fans of All the Light We Cannot See.

  • The Warm Hands of Ghosts jacket

    The Warm Hands of Ghosts

    by Katherine Arden

    Published Jan 2025

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    During the Great War, a combat nurse searches for her brother, believed dead in the trenches despite eerie signs that suggest otherwise, in this hauntingly beautiful historical novel with a speculative twist, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale.

  • The Blood Years jacket

    The Blood Years

    by Elana K. Arnold

    Published Oct 2024

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    From Michael L. Printz honoree & National Book Award finalist Elana K. Arnold comes the harrowing story of a young girl's struggle to survive the Holocaust in Romania.

  • Once We Were Home jacket

    Once We Were Home

    by Jennifer Rosner

    Published Mar 2024

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    From Jennifer Rosner, National Jewish Book Award Finalist and author of The Yellow Bird Sings, comes a novel based on the true stories of children stolen in the wake of World War II.

  • Only the Beautiful jacket

    Only the Beautiful

    by Susan Meissner

    Published Mar 2024

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    A heartrending story about a young mother's fight to keep her daughter, and the winds of fortune that tear them apart by the USA Today bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things and The Last Year of the War.

  • The Book of Lost Names jacket

    The Book of Lost Names

    by Kristin Harmel

    Published May 2021

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the "epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale" (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker's ...

  • The Paris Hours jacket

    The Paris Hours

    by Alex George

    Published May 2021

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Told over the course of a single day in 1927, The Paris Hours takes four ordinary people whose stories, told together, are as extraordinary as the glorious city they inhabit.

  • The Yellow Bird Sings jacket

    The Yellow Bird Sings

    by Jennifer Rosner

    Published Mar 2021

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    In Poland, as World War II rages, a mother hides with her young daughter, a musical prodigy whose slightest sound may cost them their lives.

  • The World That We Knew jacket

    The World That We Knew

    by Alice Hoffman

    Published Sep 2020

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    In 1941, during humanity's darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of Opposites Alice Hoffman.

  • The Flight Portfolio jacket

    The Flight Portfolio

    by Julie Orringer

    Published Jun 2020

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    The long-awaited new work from the best-selling author of The Invisible Bridge takes us back to occupied Europe in this gripping historical novel based on the true story of Varian Fry's extraordinary attempt to save the work, and the lives, of Jewish artists fleeing the Holocaust.

  • News of Our Loved Ones jacket

    News of Our Loved Ones

    by Abigail DeWitt

    Published Dec 2019

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Set in France and America, News of Our Loved Ones is a haunting and intimate examination of love and loss, beauty and the cost of survival, witnessed through two generations of one French family, whose lives are all touched by the tragic events surrounding the D-Day bombings in Normandy.

  • The Kites jacket

    The Kites

    by Romain Gary, Miranda Richmond Mouillot

    Published Sep 2019

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Romain Gary's bittersweet final masterpiece, a novel of courage and resistance - never before in English.

  • The Winter Soldier jacket

    The Winter Soldier

    by Daniel Mason

    Published Sep 2019

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    By the international bestselling author of The Piano Tuner, a sweeping and unforgettable love story of a young doctor and nurse at a remote field hospital in the First World War.

  • Mischling jacket

    Mischling

    by Affinity Konar

    Published May 2017

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    "One of the most harrowing, powerful, and imaginative books of the year" (Anthony Doerr) about twin sisters fighting to survive the evils of World War II.

  • City of Secrets jacket

    City of Secrets

    by Stewart O'Nan

    Published Apr 2017

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    From master storyteller Stewart O'Nan, a timely moral thriller of the Jewish underground resistance in Jerusalem after the Second World War

  • The Nightingale jacket

    The Nightingale

    by Kristin Hannah

    Published Apr 2017

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Winner of the 2015 BookBrowse Fiction Award

    Vivid and exquisite in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with great monstrosities, but also great humanity and strength, a novel that will have readers talking long after they turn the last page.

  • Everyone Brave is Forgiven jacket

    Everyone Brave is Forgiven

    by Chris Cleave

    Published Mar 2017

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    From the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Little Bee, a spellbinding novel about three unforgettable individuals thrown together by war, love, and their search for belonging in the ever-changing landscape of WWII London.

  • The Summer Before the War jacket

    The Summer Before the War

    by Helen Simonson

    Published Feb 2017

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love and war that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set.

  • Mr. Mac and Me jacket

    Mr. Mac and Me

    by Esther Freud

    Published Oct 2015

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Mr. Mac and Me is the story of an unlikely friendship, and a vivid portrait of one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation.

  • The Undertaking jacket

    The Undertaking

    by Audrey Magee

    Published Sep 2015

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    A much-anticipated debut from a remarkable new talent in Irish fiction—a terrifyingly intimate story of a war marriage caught up in the calamity of World War II

  • The Zone of Interest jacket

    The Zone of Interest

    by Martin Amis

    Published Jul 2015

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Powered by both wit and compassion, and in characteristically vivid prose, Martin Amis's unforgettable new novel excavates the depths and contradictions of the human soul.

  • What Is Visible jacket

    What Is Visible

    by Kimberly Elkins

    Published Jun 2015

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    A vividly original literary novel based on the astounding true-life story of Laura Bridgman, the first deaf and blind person who learned language and blazed a trail for Helen Keller.

  • Be Safe I Love You jacket

    Be Safe I Love You

    by Cara Hoffman

    Published Apr 2015

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    A novel about war and homecoming, love and duty, and an impassioned look at the effects of war on women—as soldiers and caregivers, both at home and on the front lines.

  • The Illusion of Separateness jacket

    The Illusion of Separateness

    by Simon Van Booy

    Published Jun 2014

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    This gripping, emotional story intertwines the stories of several compelling characters - one by one, through seemingly random acts of selflessness, they discover the vital parts they have played in each other's lives, a realization that shatters the illusion of their separateness.

  • A Constellation of Vital Phenomena jacket

    A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

    by Anthony Marra

    Published Feb 2014

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    A brilliant debut novel that brings to life an abandoned hospital where a tough-minded doctor decides to harbor a hunted young girl, with powerful consequences.

  • The Children's War jacket

    The Children's War

    by Monique Charlesworth

    Published Sep 2005

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Evokes wartime lives and places with astonishing immediacy and in an utterly unforgettable way, from the point of view of a young Jewish girl and a boy who struggles with his place in the Hitler Youth.

  • Charlotte Gray jacket

    Charlotte Gray

    by Sebastian Faulks

    Published Jul 2000

    More about this book

    Read Reviews

    Set in England and France during the darkest days of World War II, Charlotte Gray, like Birdsong, depicts a complex love affair that is both shaped and thwarted by war.

Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
How we choose read-alikes

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    A Pair of Aces
    by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
    Two women on opposite sides of the law team up to bring down gangster Lucky Luciano in this gripping novel.
  • Book Jacket
    When No One Else Will
    by Amanda Skenandore
    1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Feast
    by Catherine Kurtz
    In 19th-century France, a girl with a magical taste becomes a duc’s poison taster amid nobility and danger.
  • Book Jacket
    Summer's Never Over
    by Darby Bozeman
    A woman revisits a Southern summer camp where a counselor's death may not have been an accident.
  • Book Jacket
    The Reimagining of Thornwood House
    by Jaleigh Johnson
    A witch and her ward discover a magical walking house and find the true meaning of home.
Who Said...

Polite conversation is rarely either.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

S the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.