{"id":38534,"date":"2023-10-24T18:23:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1913658"},"modified":"2023-10-25T09:19:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T07:19:14","slug":"is-all-the-light-we-cannot-see-based-on-a-true-story","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/is-all-the-light-we-cannot-see-based-on-a-true-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Is All the Light We Cannot See based on a true story?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is the emotional story of war, hope and humanity based on a real-life tale? <\/p>

By Morgan Cormack\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 24 October 2023 at 16:23 PM<\/p>

\n\n

The latest original series that fans are waiting to land on Netflix<\/a> is All the Light We Cannot See<\/a>, a four-part series based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel of the same name by Anthony Doerr.<\/p>\n

The new series stars acting newcomers Aria Mia Loberti and Nell Sutton<\/a> as the older and younger Marie-Laure respectively, the blind protagonist at the heart of the tale.<\/p>\n

Along with her father Daniel (Mark Ruffalo), the teenager is relentlessly pursued because she has a precious diamond in her possession that a specific Nazi soldier wants for himself.<\/p>\n

According to the synopsis: \u201cMarie-Laure and Daniel soon find refuge in St Malo, where they take up residence with a reclusive uncle who transmits clandestine radio broadcasts as part of the resistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet here in this once-idyllic seaside city, Marie-Laure\u2019s path also collides inexorably with the unlikeliest of kindred spirits: Werner, a brilliant teenager enlisted by Hitler\u2019s regime to track down illegal broadcasts, who instead shares a secret connection to Marie-Laure as well as her faith in humanity and the possibility of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and cenrting on the French seaside town of Saint-Malo, fans of the novel and new Netflix series may be wondering whether it is based on a true story.<\/p>\n

Well, read on to find out more about the inspiration behind the tale.<\/p>

Is All the Light We Cannot See based on a true story?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"Louis\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Louis Hofmann as Werner Pfennig, Ed Skrein as Herr Seidler and Luna Wedler as Jutta in All the Light We Cannot See.<\/span><\/figcaption> Katalin Vermes\/Netflix<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

All the Light We Cannot See is a work of fiction written by bestselling author Anthony Doerr that was 10 years in the making. While the Second World War is obviously a very real historical event, the stories within the book and the Netflix series are fictitious.<\/p>\n

Doerr was, however, inspired by something when thinking of his next novel. In a 2014 interview with NPR<\/a>, the author revealed that the idea for the book came on an unlikely train ride.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cI was on a train heading into Penn Station from Princeton, NJ, and we started going underground. The man in front of me was on his cellphone call \u2014 this was in 2004 \u2014 and the call dropped. And he got kind of angry, a little embarrassingly angry, unreasonably angry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I just remember thinking, what he\u2019s forgetting \u2014 really what we\u2019re all forgetting all the time \u2014 is that this is a miracle. He\u2019s using this little receiver and transmitter, this little radio in his pocket, to send messages at the speed of light rebounding between towers to somebody maybe thousands of miles away. He might have been talking to someone in Madagascar for all I knew. For me, that\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cSo \u2026 originally, the real central motivation for the book was to try and conjure up a time when hearing the voice of a stranger in your home was a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that setting the story in the real location of Saint-Malo was in no small part due to the fact that he visited the town while on a book tour and thought it was an old town when in reality, he was informed that it was almost completely bombed in 1944.<\/p>\n

Doerr said that there are \u201cstill-untold stories tucked within the D-Day story\u201d that compelled him when writing the book. He said: \u201cI feel like, here this was two months after D-Day and the Allies had penetrated almost halfway to Paris. And yet here was this citadel where Germans were still holding out. Those things really drew me into the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The battle of Saint-Malo, which unfolds in the book and series, is real, though. The battle was fought between German and Allied forces and unfolded across August to September in 1944.<\/p>\n

The port town lies on the coast of Brittany and was bombed extensively over the period, but was rebuilt after the war.<\/p>\n

In terms of framing the story around the radio, Doerr said in an interview with Goodreads<\/a>: \u201cSo, I thought, I wanted to tell a story in a time in history when radio had a lot of power. When hearing the voice of a stranger or a loved one in your home, in your ear, was a magical thing. So I knew I\u2019d have to go back to World War I or World War II and try to remember that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I started reading about radio transmissions and propaganda in Nazi Germany. It really started with how you can map the level of violence of the genocide in Rwanda by the strength of radio transmissions there. Literally disc jockeys were fomenting violence on the radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could tell by the level of reception how violent it was there. That was such a vivid illustration of the power of radio. So I started to read old broadcasts that the Third Reich put out to their citizens, and that got me started.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the characters within the book, Doerr has said that he researched extensively for the character of Marie-Laure. He said in the same interview: \u201cI read lots and lots of memoirs \u2013 anything about someone going blind or had been blind, especially somebody who had lost his or her sight as a child. I knew I wanted her to have some visual memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut primarily just reading: And There Was Light by a guy named Jacques Lusseyran. A writer named Edward Hoagland has this beautiful memoir [Compass Points]. He lost his sight as an older man. He started walking in New York City, and everything he saw was radiant because he knew he wouldn\u2019t see it again. It\u2019s harrowing. Sad. Oliver Sacks writes about blindness in lots of different ways.\u201d<\/p>