#21 The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

#21 The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Let me start, dear reader, by saying that this would make a wonderful movie! I imagine it would be one of those sweeping epics filled with panoramic shots of sea and sky, beautiful scenery and heart-wrenching emotion. But until the movie is made, you must read the book first. And anyway, reading a book before the movie is a good habit to get into and also just plain good sense!  

This is truly a lovely novel filled with heartache and reconciliation. We are introduced to Tom Sherbourne who signs up to become a lighthouse keeper following his service during WWI. After the horrors of war and without family, Tom needs to be alone so he can wrestle the demons of his past and what better place to do that than from a lighthouse off the coast of Australia.  Before taking his post on Janus, which is the last sight ships see when heading out to sea, Tom meets Isabel with whom he spends his remaining weeks before leaving civilization for the remote island.  After a lengthy courtship which occurs through letters and another brief visit, they decide to marry and Isabel becomes a lighthouse keeper’s wife.   Despite being raised in a family of means, Isabel takes to life on Janus and their marriage is very strong as a result. After the heartbreak of miscarriages, Isabel and Tom find a boat crashed upon the rocks with a dead man and baby girl inside.  Tom goes against his strong moral ethics by not recording the incident in the keepers log and reluctantly agrees to raise the baby as their own. What follows is a harrowing tale of loss, grief and guilt. Where one mother is made whole by this baby girl, another is filled with despair. We learn to care for these characters and for their circumstances and we understand their choices, despite one characters decisions causing another’s heartache.  

This is a moving novel filled with characters that are complex yet fragile at the same time. It gives the reader a real sense of the isolation felt as the characters immerse themselves in island life as well as the personal isolation felt when a difficult choice must be made and we are given just enough backstory to inform us of their true nature which informs their lives and decisions. We are treated to marvelous descriptions of Australia’s rocky coastline as well as fascinating detail on the workings of a lighthouse which had the very small science geek in me fascinated!  Overall, this is a great book to escape with and a great beginning for a fellow debut author. Until next time…have you read a book today?

Julie