Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See.

I reviewed the novel back in October last year, and while I thought the prose was beautiful I found Doerr’s almost deliberate avoidance of all things Nazi in relation to Werner and his actions to be disingenuous.  It’s a popular novel – my review of the book is, by a large margin, the most read post on this site – and given the decision last year to award the Pulitzer to The Goldfinch this might be starting a trend of handing the prize to the blockbuster book of that year.  (I say this with very little idea of the history of the award.  It’s possible that this is not a new trend at all).

I do note that the fiction prize is “for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.”  That “preferably” must be disguising a very loose guideline as All The Light We Cannot See has bugger all to do with America.  It also makes me wonder why Lila by Marilynne Robinson wasn’t considered (it doesn’t even feature on the list of finalists).

Still, congratulations to Anthony Doerr on the win.