The Light Between Oceans

There's a scene towards the end of The Light Between Oceans in which the main female character, Isabel, contemplates a painting of an angel with a flaming sword casting Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. That painting summarizes the plot of this novel as well.

Isabel and her husband Tom live, just the two of them, on wild Janus Rock off of the western Australian coast. Tom, a traumatized veteran of World War I, works as a lighthouse keeper. They are perfectly content with just each other for company until Isabel suffers from a series of miscarriages followed by a stillbirth. But then, seemingly in answer to their prayers, a baby girl washes ashore in a boat, with her deceased father beside her. The baby's miraculous arrival sets in show more motion a chain of decisions and events that lead to Tom and Isabel's expulsion from their island paradise.

I found this book rather painful to read, I think because the sense of loss expressed in Stedman's lyrical prose is so palpable. There were also times I felt as though my emotions were being manipulated. I'm glad I read it, but I was also glad when it was over. show less

This book is filled with sadness and loss. There are happy moments but even those are shadowed by secrets and wrong doing.

Tom Sherbourne is haunted by the war and the things he had to do as a soldier. He also has some survivors guilt. Long time ago the lighthouse keepers were needed to set the light, take care of the structure and of course serve as warning to those sailing ships who may otherwise be unaware of the rocks and shore. Janus is a perfect island sanctuary for someone as haunted as Tom.

From Chapter 1:
He’s in a place where there’s just wind and waves and light, and the intricate machinery that keeps the flame burning and the lantern turning. Always turning, always looking over its shoulder. If he can only get far enough show more away – from people, from memory – time will do its job.

The writing is lyrical and you can certainly picture the scenes, see Tom’s frown, hear Isabel’s peals of laughter. Before heading out to his post it’s customary to join the Harbormaster and family for a dinner. This is where he meets Isabel, actually for the second time. She was feeding birds when he first spoke to her and he is enchanted with her vibrant outlook on life.

Fast forward and they are writing to one another and eventually marry. The happiness is short lived when Izzy has several failed pregnancies. As she is tending one of the graves of her stillborn children she hears a baby cry. It must be her imagination, or madness. Then Tom yells there is a boat adrift in the cove and they run to it. Inside is a dead man and a live baby girl.

Tom, as keeper of the books on the lighthouse, needs to record this event and signal for a ship to come and pick up the baby and the body of the man. This is where things go south. Isabel wants that baby with all her heart.

Tom: “But that’s just it. We don’t need to do anything wrong. We could report her now and apply to adopt her. It’s not too late, Izz. We can still make it right.”

“Adopt her?” Isabel stiffened. “They’d never send a baby to a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere: no doctor, no school. No church probably worries them the most. And even if they did put her up for adoption , they’d want to give her to some couple in a town somewhere.”

Isabel names the baby Lucy and becomes the perfect most patient young mother. Lucy thrives on the island. Isabel is content to let people know she gave birth and pass Lucy off as her own. After all, people knew she was pregnant and being so isolated no one knew of the miscarriages. Tom begins to love the child but he is troubled by the perjury of records, he is worried about whose baby this is and the grief the mother must be experiencing. As he continually mentions they need to tell someone about Lucy, Isabel is always ready with an argument why they shouldn’t.

They start to fall apart. Isabel questions Tom as to why he’s put so much spit and polish in for the next inspection.

“I want it shipshape, that’s all. I’ve told you, we’re in with a chance for the Point Moore posting. We’d be on land, close to Gerladton. Near people. And we’d be hundreds of miles from Partageuse.”

“Time was you couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Janus.”

“Yeah, well, times change.”

“It’s not time that’s changed, Tom,” she said. “You’re the one who always says that if a lighthouse looks like it’s in a different place, it’s not the lighthouse that’s moved.”

“Well you work out what has,” he said as he picked up his spanner and headed off……..

Meanwhile, you read about Lucy’s mother who is alive and grieving all these years for her husband and her baby named Grace. There are plot twists you won’t see coming. This is not a predictable outcome and you feel empathy for both Isabel and Lucy/Grace’s mother just about equally. This isn’t a happily ever after book but it is a well written novel, the imagery and emotions are first class.

I would like to read more by this author. Not sure if I’d watch the movie though. show less

I finished reading M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans last night, and I now understand why it was the subject of a bidding war and I am certain it is destined to become a huge bestseller in the months to come.

Tom Sherbourne returns from World War I with his limbs intact but carrying psychological scars and seeks to get as far away from people as possible. He seeks refuge on Janus Rock as a Lighthouse Keeper, where the regulations and routine of lighting up, maintaining the light and recording everything that happens in the log book, calm him.

Tom meets Isabel at Point Partageuse and they soon marry. Izzy joins him on Janus Rock for three years at a time, and they have no contact from the outside world except for the quarterly show more visits from Bluey and Ralph on the supply boat.

Shortly after a miscarriage, a small row boat washes ashore with a man and baby onboard. Unfortunately the man is dead but miraculously the baby is still alive. Did God answer their prayers for a baby? Should they report it? What if they disagree? Tom and Izzy's actions that follow the surprise discovery ultimately change the course of their lives forever.

It's easy to judge what you would do in such a situation, but in reading The Light Between Oceans it was painful to see the chain of events unfold and the toll on their relationship. Sometimes there is no right or wrong, and in the end there are no winners.

This was an incredibly moving story. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about what it was like to be a Lighthouse Keeper in Australia during this period. The isolation and the weather were beautifully captured and written however didn't feature so much as to become tiresome for the reader. I loved the references to the night sky and Tom's love of astronomy in addition to Tom's - and the fellow lighthouse keepers' - love for the light. A life 'on the lights' was something I knew nothing about prior to picking up this book and I feel my life is richer for having read about this aspect of our history.

Born and raised in Western Australia, Stedman now lives in London, however there's no doubting she's an Aussie. She has captured the Australian lingo of the period exceptionally well, and I truly felt transported back in time with words like: 'girlie', 'humdinger' and 'stepping out.'

I was captivated and swept away by Stedman's writing style, and I'd like to share my favourite section from The Light Between Oceans. It is an extract from Page 24, and in the lead up to this section the author is writing about the death of children:
"The town cemetery had always recorded this truthfully, and its headstones, some lolling like loose, grimy teeth, told frankly the stories of lives taken early by influenza and drownings, by timber whims and even lightning strikes. But in 1915, it began to lie. Boys and men from across the district were dying by the score, yet the graveyards said nothing."
I've been thinking about these words every day since I read them; that the graveyards said nothing. I found this incredibly moving and poignant and just one example of the author's powerful writing style.

I couldn't recommend M. L. Stedman's The Light Between Oceans - named so because the Janus lighthouse overlooks the merging of two oceans - more highly. show less

Set in Australia after the first World War, The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman brought out so many conflicting emotions while the story engrossed me fully.

This is the story of Tom and Isabel, who live as lighthouse keepers on a remote island. Tom holds many feelings and emotions about his time as a soldier quietly to himself but meeting and falling in love with Isabel gives him a feeling of security and peace. As the only occupant of Janus Rock, they long to start a family but Isabel suffers a number of miscarriages and ultimately loses the hope of having a child. But when a boat carrying both a dead man and a living baby washes ashore, Isabel is certain that she has been blessed with a child and although Tom wishes to report show more their discovery, she convinces him not to. They keep the baby and fall totally in love with her but Tom can never overcome his guilty feelings and when he finds out that the true mother, Hannah, has never recovered and still searches for her baby and husband the guilt threatens to overwhelm him.

The Light Between the Oceans gave me all the feels. I was very torn over this complex story, not knowing who to root for. As a mother I can’t believe what both women went through, but the author’s deft touch, beautiful writing and vivid atmosphere made this a captivating and engaging reading experience. show less

Oh, the anguish. This may be the saddest book I've ever read (trumping Les Miserables and The Book Thief). I had some control at the beginning of the novel and held back my tears by in the last chapter or so I was a complete mess. It was emotionally traumatic.

I was utterly enthralled by Stedman's writing style and I was captured by the character's stories. I literally couldn't put this book down. I was swept away into their anxieties and I wasn't let go till the very end.

This book has a whole heap of downs. Like things can't go right for these characters and you immediately feel for them. You begin to sympathise with every one of the characters and after awhile, sympathising with every character creates unwanted anxieities because it show more every character can't possibly be satisfied. Oh the anguish! I felt so deeply for all the characters and I didn't know how they would make it through all of this. I was completely consumed with anxiety throughout this novel and then brought to an emotional mess at the conclusion.

I love sad books, books that make me feel something, and boy did this book make me feel.

What a masterpiece of dramatic writing! show less

The summary pretty much tells the whole book. I hate that in a summary. If you simply read those few paragraphs, you may never read the book, which is such a great character study. The characters in the book are so real and excellently portrayed that each one brings both sympathy and anger. I completely understood the decisions made by each one. I didn't agree, but I also couldn't argue that I would have acted any differently. It is heart-wrenching and hopeful and devastating and satisfying. What more could you want in a book?

Highly recommended.

This book is filled with sadness and loss. There are happy moments but even those are shadowed by secrets and wrong doing.

Tom Sherbourne is haunted by the war and the things he had to do as a soldier. He also has some survivors guilt. Long time ago the lighthouse keepers were needed to set the light, take care of the structure and of course serve as warning to those sailing ships who may otherwise be unaware of the rocks and shore. Janus is a perfect island sanctuary for someone as haunted as Tom.

From Chapter 1:
He’s in a place where there’s just wind and waves and light, and the intricate machinery that keeps the flame burning and the lantern turning. Always turning, always looking over its shoulder. If he can only get far enough show more away – from people, from memory – time will do its job.

The writing is lyrical and you can certainly picture the scenes, see Tom’s frown, hear Isabel’s peals of laughter. Before heading out to his post it’s customary to join the Harbormaster and family for a dinner. This is where he meets Isabel, actually for the second time. She was feeding birds when he first spoke to her and he is enchanted with her vibrant outlook on life.

Fast forward and they are writing to one another and eventually marry. The happiness is short lived when Izzy has several failed pregnancies. As she is tending one of the graves of her stillborn children she hears a baby cry. It must be her imagination, or madness. Then Tom yells there is a boat adrift in the cove and they run to it. Inside is a dead man and a live baby girl.

Tom, as keeper of the books on the lighthouse, needs to record this event and signal for a ship to come and pick up the baby and the body of the man. This is where things go south. Isabel wants that baby with all her heart.

Tom: “But that’s just it. We don’t need to do anything wrong. We could report her now and apply to adopt her. It’s not too late, Izz. We can still make it right.”

“Adopt her?” Isabel stiffened. “They’d never send a baby to a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere: no doctor, no school. No church probably worries them the most. And even if they did put her up for adoption , they’d want to give her to some couple in a town somewhere.”

Isabel names the baby Lucy and becomes the perfect most patient young mother. Lucy thrives on the island. Isabel is content to let people know she gave birth and pass Lucy off as her own. After all, people knew she was pregnant and being so isolated no one knew of the miscarriages. Tom begins to love the child but he is troubled by the perjury of records, he is worried about whose baby this is and the grief the mother must be experiencing. As he continually mentions they need to tell someone about Lucy, Isabel is always ready with an argument why they shouldn’t.

They start to fall apart. Isabel questions Tom as to why he’s put so much spit and polish in for the next inspection.

“I want it shipshape, that’s all. I’ve told you, we’re in with a chance for the Point Moore posting. We’d be on land, close to Gerladton. Near people. And we’d be hundreds of miles from Partageuse.”
“Time was you couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Janus.”
“Yeah, well, times change.”
“It’s not time that’s changed, Tom,” she said. “You’re the one who always says that if a lighthouse looks like it’s in a different place, it’s not the lighthouse that’s moved.”
“Well you work out what has,” he said as he picked up his spanner and headed off……..

Meanwhile, you read about Lucy’s mother who is alive and grieving all these years for her husband and her baby named Grace. There are plot twists you won’t see coming. This is not a predictable outcome and you feel empathy for both Isabel and Lucy/Grace’s mother just about equally. This isn’t a happily ever after book but it is a well written novel, the imagery and emotions are first class.

I would like to read more by this author. Not sure if I’d watch the movie though and put myself through the grief and heartbreak. This one I stayed up past midnight to finish once I was close to the end. show less