All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr

The air swarms with so much that is invisible! How he wishes he had eyes to see the ultraviolet, eyes to see the infrared, eyes to see radio waves crowding the darkening sky, flashing through the walls of the house.

“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.”

“Is it right,” Jutta says, “to do something only because everyone else is doing it?”

Taking things from it, stuffing things into it. Each bite of food, each particle of light entering the eye—the body can never be pure.

What light shines at night! He never knew. Day will blind him.