- Netflix's "All the Light You Cannot See" is based on Anthony Doerr's novel of the same name.
- The series takes place in the real French town of Saint-Malo during World War II.
Netflix's "All the Light We Cannot See" is a World War II-era epic — but it's not based on a true story.
The Netflix series, directed by Shawn Levy ("The Adam Project," "Stranger Things"), stars newcomer Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hofmann ("Dark"), and Mark Ruffalo. Based on Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, it takes place in the real-life locale of Saint-Malo, which is situated on the northern coast of France in Brittany.
The series, and Doerr's novel, follow two young people swept up in the war — one French, and one German — whose paths cross in the bombarded northern coast French town. Despite firmly situating itself amid the war in Europe, Doerr's novel, and in turn, the Netflix series, are historical fiction.
What is 'All the Light We Cannot See' about?
Doerr's novel and the Netflix series follow Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Loberti) and Werner Pfennig (Hoffman), two people on opposite sides of the war who both end up sequestered in Saint-Malo during the August 1944 battle in the town. (The Battle of Saint-Malo really happened.)
Marie-Laure is a teenager who fled Paris with her father Daniel (Ruffalo), a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History, when Nazi Germany invaded France. The pair found refuge in Saint-Malo with Marie-Laure's uncle Etienne — and crucially, took a potentially cursed, valuable gem known as the Sea of Flames from the Museum for safekeeping. During the siege of Saint-Malo, she broadcasts herself over Etienne's radio reading pages from her braille copy of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas."
Werner, meanwhile, is a soldier of Nazi Germany with a penchant for radio technology. An orphan, his technology acumen earns him a place in a national academy, eventually leading to him joining the military. Eventually, he arrives in Saint-Malo and tracks Etienne and Marie-Laure's radio signal, but doesn't disclose it to his superiors.
Both Doerr's novel and the show follow a non-linear narrative structure that skips between Marie-Laure and Werner's sides of the story, skipping back to show their childhood and adolescence amid the ongoing Battle of Saint-Malo. Eventually, the pair's paths collide in the city, as Nazi gemologist Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel pursues Marie-Laure and the Sea of Flames.
What's the history behind 'All the Light We Cannot See?'
Doerr's first inspiration for "All the Light We Cannot See" occurred in 2004, when he heard a man become irate on a train when his call dropped, he told NPR in 2014. However, for some time, his only thought for a novel was a "blind girl reading a story to a boy over the radio."
When he visited Saint-Malo, however, he was struck by the city's age, and learned that it had almost been destroyed by Americans in 1944 during the second World War.
After D-Day on June 6, 1944, Allied forces began to reclaim Europe. Saint-Malo, then under German control, was subject to American bombardment that left most of the city destroyed. It was eventually rebuilt, and can be visited today.
As for the Sea of Flames, the potentially cursed jewel Marie-Laure's father hides from the Germans, Doerr told Powells that it isn't real. According to the author, the closest comparison to the jewel is a sapphire in the British Natural History Museum that some have speculated to be cursed.