Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia after fighting in WWI and becomes a lighthouse keeper. While tending the light on Janus, Tom gets shore leave in Partaguese where he meets and marries Isabel. Their life is tainted by the grief of Isabel's miscarriages and stillbirth when a baby and a dead body wash up in a rowboat on the island. Their decision to keep the baby has far-reaching repercussions, leading to a gut-twisting story that delves into the motives and feelings of the main characters. The book explores the ethical questions surrounding the couple's actions, their emotional journey, and the impact of their decisions on their lives and others.
The Light Between Oceans is a moving and compelling story that reaches the most tender parts of the human heart, exploring the power of human emotion and its impact on decision-making. The novel portrays a couple facing dire consequences after deciding to raise an abandoned infant as their own, leading to a heart-wrenching tale of love, loss, and moral dilemma that keeps readers emotionally invested until the very end.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Triggers may include miscarriage, stillbirth, loss of a child, and themes of moral conflict.
Has Romance?
The novel contains a significant romantic element, exploring the relationship between Tom and Isabel.
From The Publisher:
The years-long New York Times bestseller and major motion picture from Spielberg's Dreamworks is "irresistible…seductive…with a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page" (O, The Oprah Magazine).
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, 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, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a "gift from God," and against Tom's judgment, 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.
Ratings (34)
Incredible (6) | |
Loved It (12) | |
Liked It (9) | |
It Was OK (6) | |
Did Not Like (1) |
Reader Stats (80):
Read It (37) | |
Currently Reading (1) | |
Want To Read (31) | |
Did Not Finish (3) | |
Not Interested (8) |
1 comment(s)
I. What. What just happened. This book just got inside me and broke something, and I felt all the feels at once, and I will never be the same.
This is historical, literary fiction at its best. Tom, a recently returned soldier from WWI who totally has PTSD, becomes a lighthouse keeper in Australia and meets Isabel, a young, impetuous, beautiful woman who sweeps him off his feet (as much as a man who can't talk about feelings can be swept). They live on Janus Rock, where a lighthouse sits between the Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean (as the Australians call it, I don't really know). Janus is maybe three square miles, and they are its only inhabitants for years. Isabel has three miscarriages, all of which tear at her heart, before a small boat washes up on their beach. The boat contains a dead man, about Tom's age, and a living infant. Isabel, fresh from the grief of her latest miscarriage (she also totally has PTSD by now), convinces Tom to bury the man and raise the baby girl as their own. Eventually, the inevitable happens.
Tom is a man who has learned to live by rules. The rules of the battlefield, the rules of the Lighthouse Authority, the meticulous care he takes of the light itself; all of these have kept him from falling apart. He suffers from survivor's guilt and has a keen sense of right and wrong. Isabel, on the other hand, is ruled by her emotions - she allows herself to fall in love with Lucy and explain away the darker side of what they have done, while Tom, who also loves Lucy, always feels that darkness in some part of him.
Although WWI is over at the start of the book, it affects everyone. Tom suffers from PTSD; Isabel and her family lost two sons in the war; even the man in the boat was driven there by the ugliness war has put into the Australians. This is very much a book about war, even though no battles take place within it.
I love the way Stedman matures her characters, from the subtle changes in Tom to the progression of Isabel from free-wheeling girl/woman, to grieving wife, to happy mother, and eventually through grieving mother to something else. Although most of the book takes place during Lucy's first four years of life, Tom and Isabel drift apart and come back to each other over decades. The ending will. Kill you. It is the only way the book could have ended, and it is so perfect. Put down whatever you are doing and read this book right now.
What can you read after
The Light Between Oceans?
About the Author:
M.L. Stedman was born and raised in Western Australia and now lives in London. The Light Between Oceans is her first novel.
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