Book: The Light Between Oceans
Author: M.L. Stedman
Pages: 343
Plot Summary: After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgement, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.
Characters: First we have Tom Sherbourne, a young world-weary war veteran. Tom has witnessed the horrors of a war and all he wants in his life here on out is some peace and quiet. He is a highly spiritual man and he wants to, in some way, atone for taking human lives. Tom finds his job as a lighthouse keeper peaceful and highly satisfying; he likes that fact that this is a lonely job where he has a lot of time to be by himself. Tom is calm, quiet and has a very strong moral compass, which is why when Isabel wants to keep the baby without reporting the boat and the dead man, Tom is very uncomfortable with that decision. He is not able to say anything to Isabel because she had miscarried for a third time- this time when she was seven months along- and was hurting and vulnerable. Much against his better judgement and character, Tom lets her keep the baby and buries the man, but ever since then he is haunted by this deception of their. Tom is a wonderful father and he loves Lucy but the thought of what they've done weighs on him heavily, which eventually, makes their little world come crashing down on them...
Isabel is a feisty and fun girl; after her marriage, she wants nothing more than a big family with which to fill up Janus Rock. The miscarriages weigh heavily on her and she thinks of them as her inability to give Tom the family that he deserves. Isabel becomes exceedingly attached to Lucy, so much so that when they find out about who Lucy really is and who she really belongs with, Isabel is completely unwilling to let Lucy go. Not even when she sees the suffering of Lucy's real mother.
Then there is Hannah, with her own tragic past, who is only focused on finding her missing child. Hannah tries her best to be fair and sensitive once she finds her daughter- a much more honourable person than those around her.
What I Liked: I liked the whole premise of the book. I like the moral dilemma that it presented- if you raise a child with love and no one else knows how that child came to be with you, is it okay to keep her? The child's father was dead in a boat, the child was wrapped in a woman's cardigan.. it was easy enough to assume that perhaps even her mother was dead. Does it then make it alright to keep the baby and raise it with all the love in the world? Also, was it right to reveal to Hannah where her baby was? I liked that the book posed these questions.
What I Didn't Like: Nothing much. This book is beautifully written and each character is so well nuanced.
General Thoughts: This book is set is Australia- off the Australian coast on a tiny sliver of an island. I love how Janus Rock is described- it sounds like a perfectly magical, though very lonely, place to live in. I wouldn't mind living there and running a lighthouse! Also, it was really interesting to read about how lighthouses were run back-in-the-day when there was no electricity. The Light Between Oceans is a stunning book and one of the best I have read this year! I highly recommend it!
Rating: 5/5
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