The Light Between Oceans

Tom Sherbourne is newly arrived to the Janus Rock area, where he will be in charge of the lighthouse. But life has a lot more in store for him than he thought. As he works through his first year, he meets Isabel, who has determined that she is going to marry him. After their marriage and their first couple of years on the Island, Isabel is unable to carry a baby to term. When a boat washes up on their beach with a dead man and a baby, Isabel latches on, and refuses to let Tom report the incident. Against his better judgement, he allows her to keep the little girl, and buries the evidence. As they move through the years of raising Lucy, Tom continues to be haunted by the events and refuses to give up on his resolve to make things right. When they visit the mainland to have their child christened and meet her grandparents, they learn the truth about their daughter, and Tom is haunted even more.
As the events unfold and the years continue, Hannah continues to hold out hope that her daughter is alive somewhere, and the shocking truth sets everyone to talking. Tom is arrested and held, and Isabel refuses to talk to the police. Lucy demands to be taken back to her parents, and Hannah feels her grief opening anew...

This book was an amazing read! I simply could NOT put this book down. I recommend it highly

There was only about one thing I like about this book and that was the way they described the surroundings. The locations seemed beautiful and were described so well I could almost feel like I was there.

However, the rest of the book I absolutely hated. I don't know where to start. Isabelle was a horrible person. I couldn't sympathize with her. I don't think it's because I had never had a child or miscarriages but because she was clearly mentally ill. At first, I was like okay, they decided to just keep the child for a day to take care of her, okay no problem. Then I knew that she would manipulate him into keeping her. This made me sad because it was such a cop out. Emotional manipulative woman convinces her doormat of a husband to keep someone else's child even though he KNOWS that's the wrong thing to do.

When Tom started writing the notes to Hannah I actually thought that maybe it was Isabelle and that the reader was throwing us off. I thought, wow that's going to be a twist! NOPE. Just Tom and his guilty conscience, because I should have realized that when it comes to children, women would do anything to keep them safe blah blah blah. That was the reasoning that Isabelle gave. She stated that she did not want the child to go to an orphanage as her main reason. If that was the main reason, then once they find out that Hannah is alive, they should just explain everything. They would have been much less hated had that happened.

I did feel sorry for Hannah. Clearly she got dealt the worst hand. She not only got disowned by her father for marrying a German man, but she subsequently lost both her husband and her baby at the same time putting her into a what I can only describe as a catatonic state. So of course when she gets the first note everyone just thinks she is insane. I can't imagine how helpless she must have been feeling.

Back to Isabelle. Wow, what a horrible human being. The excuses can keep getting stated (her miscarriages, being lonely on the island) but I will still not feel sorry for her. She seemed to have NO remorse until the end, where it was almost too late to help Tom, and then she went in to tell the truth, but just before that she still lies to Hannah to get the child back. When she has a stillbirth she blames in on Tom, and at no point in time does she apologize for that. She also completely freaks out when she thinks that he got a doctor to come to the island to take a look at her. HOW DARE HE? HOW DARE HER LOVING HUSBAND WANT TO TAKE CARE OF HER? I know that in the end she does “the right thing” but that does not erase all the wrong she had done. I would say poor Tom, and sure he also had a crappy situation but clearly he did not do anything to get out of it. He himself could have just sent out for a boat to take the baby back on the second day but he loved his wife too much to take this child away from her.

I feel like there was way too much back story on Hannah's father. I understand that it was added so that he could relate to Lucy but in the end it did not need to be that long and detailed. I found it interesting but then at the end of the book I found myself wondering why that whole chuck was dedicated to him just to bring it back up that one time.

All in all, I loved the description of the scenery but I did not like any of the characters. I could not sympathize with any of them and found them all to be very boring.

I apologized profusely to my book club for picking this book and I don't doubt that this is the worst book they have read all year.

I am not one of these people who gets upset when books get turned into movies, for me it's quite exciting to see stories I've loved brought to life off the page. Sometimes I've even discovered really good books on account of the fact I've seen trailers for movies that have then prompted me to go and find out more about the book itself.

I already knew a bit about The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman and had heard it highly recommended and it had been hiding on my e-reader with a promise that at some point I'd get around to reading it. Then I came across the trailer for the movie which is due to be released in October and I suddenly felt a burning urge to ensure I read it before I watch the adaptation to the big screen and I am very pleased I did and a little perplexed as to what took so long.

The Light Between Oceans is a story of a lighthouse keeper who moves to take over a new posting on a tiny island off the coast of Australia shortly after the end of the first World War. It is a remote island where the keeper can spend many months alone until the arrival of supplies by boat and they may not step foot ashore beside other people for years at a time. On one of his early trips back to the mainland he meets and falls in love with Isabel, the daughter of the local school headmaster and they begin corresponding and eventually marry and she moves with him back to his tiny island of Janus.

Their marriage is a happy one initially but is soon blighted by many miscarriages and stillbirths and it is shortly after the stillbirth of their son that a boat is washed up ashore on their tiny island containing the body of a stranger and his tiny baby daughter. Isabel is bereft from the loss of her own child and craving a child of her own and she persuades her husband that no one will know if they keep the tiny baby and say she is their own, after all the mother must also have drowned in the boat.

It's a story where we feel the happiness of the family, there are only 3 of them on the island and they create their own little world together. They are happy and the little girl, whom they name Lucy, is loved beyond measure. They bring her home when they eventually get shore leave some 2 years later and introduce her to Isabel's family and prepare for Lucy's christening. It is then that they hear the story of a local woman whose husband and infant daughter were lost at sea approximately 2 years before and they realise that the mother they assumed to be dead is very much alive.

This is a book of complex emotions as a reader because you can feel Isabel's pain, you can understand her choices and why under the weight of such intense grief and loss for her own baby she finds it easy to take the baby washed up ashore and use her as a way to fill that loss, choosing to persuade her husband to keep the baby. However as the book progresses we learn that whilst she has filled the gap left behind she has also developed a fierce protectiveness over her daughter that means that even when faced with another grieving mother seeking closure for her daughter lost at sea she cannot be truthful and admit what she has done. Instead she works tirelessly to justify her actions, to almost blackmail her husband into staying quiet with emotional threats.

One of the quotes that really stood out to me in the book to help understand Isabel's feeling was the one that read “As a fourteen-year-old, Isabel had searched the dictionary. She knew that if a wife lost a husband, there was a whole new word to describe who she was: she was now a widow. A husband became a widower. But if a parent lost a child, there was no special label for their grief. They were still just a mother or a father, even if they no longer had a son or a daughter. That seemed odd.”

Tom is an entirely different character because he has no less love for the child but instead of feeling this as a signal to stay quiet about what they've done he finds his guilt presses him to want to reassure the mother that her child is safe. He is seeking redemption for his actions as a soldier during the war and as a way of righting his wrongs he feels pressed to contact the other woman anonymously and let her know that her child is safe and loved.

The moral dilemma in this book is that we know that Tom is doing the right thing, the thing we like to think we would all do but we can understand the anger that Isabel feels at him for doing so, the increasing panic she feels that her child will be ripped from her. We want their child to remain theirs but we also know she doesn't belong there. This is a wonderful book full of complex emotions and characters who are all essentially likeable and doing the things they feel are right and at the heart of the book is a child who is dearly loved by two families instead of just by one.

I have a feeling this will be a wonderful story on the big screen and that there will be many people who haven't read the book who fall in love with the wonderful story. I cannot recommend it highly enough and will be desperate to see it as soon as I can to contrast it with it's book version.

I didn't want to like this as much as I did, but it was a very entertaining and compelling read. Mildly disappointed by the ending, but then I'm not sure what could have been done differently or better. The language was generally very good; wonderful extended metaphors abound. The central question of the novel is very powerful. So, in the end, I'm a fan.

my mom saw the preview for this movie then realized it was a book. knowing that I like to read books before i touch the movies I bought this and I am so happy i did.

First Line: On the day of the miracle, Isabel was kneeling at the cliff's edge, tending the small, newly made driftwood cross.

Tom Sherbourne has done something that hundreds of thousands of other young men didn't: survive four years on the Western Front. When this World War I veteran returns home to Australia, all he wants to do is to forget, to find a job where he can be of use, and to be left to himself. He takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly a half day's journey from the coast of Western Australia. It is a life of isolation. The supply boat comes four times a year, and shore leave might be granted every other year at best.

To this life, Tom brings a young, vivacious, and loving wife, but years pass, and after two miscarriages and a stillbirth, Tom sees that the wife he loves more than life itself is wasting away before his eyes. One morning while tending those tiny graves, Isabel hears a baby's cry on the wind. It is not her imagination. A boat has washed ashore. Aboard are a dead man and a tiny living baby girl.

No one has taken better care of the Janus Rock Lighthouse than Tom Sherbourne. Everything gleams; every bit of machinery runs smoothly; and his records are meticulous. Tom is an intensely moral man, and he wants to report the man and infant immediately, but Isabel has taken the baby and clings to her like a drowning woman to a life raft. Against his better judgment, the incident is not reported, and Tom and Isabel claim the baby as their own and name her Lucy. For Isabel, life is idyllic for two years. Then leave is granted, and the family of three return to shore where they are reminded that there are other people in the world, and their decision has ruined the life of one of them.

You would never dream that The Light Between Oceans is a debut novel. The isolated setting of Janus Rock is indelibly drawn: the wind, the birds wheeling in the air, the crashing of the waves, the steady brilliance of the light at night. The sights, the scents, the sounds– they all live in the mind as do the streets and the inhabitants of the small town of Partageuse where Isobel's parents live, and where Tom, Isabel and Lucy spend their infrequent leave.

It's impossible to read this book and not become totally drawn in by the characters: the withdrawn and haunted Tom, the bold and laughing Isabel, and all the people who call Partageuse home. It was also impossible for me to read this book and not to choose sides. One of the major images of the book is this meeting of opposites. Janus Rock stands where the warm Indian and cold Antarctic Oceans meet. It's where the taciturn Tom and the ebullient Isabel live. It's where a brilliant light flashes continuously throughout the dark nights. It's where a bad decision is made for all the right reasons. The town of Partageuse continues the image.

I was completely caught up in Stedman's story. I was staunchly in Tom's camp, and I wanted to shake sense into Isabel, but these are not one-dimensional characters, and as the story progressed, I finally put away my outraged sense of right and wrong and let wave after wave of consequences toss me onto the rocks. All I could do was watch. I wont give any more away I will just say i was impressed.

This is a sad, sad story.

I was pretty sure it was going to be a sad, sad story when I saw it on the list of recommended books in the August issue of Oprah magazine. Oprah doesn't really do happy.

But this is sad. Very sad.

Here's the plot: World War I is over and Tom Sherbourne is coming home. He's seen death and now he wants some peace. He finds a job as a lighthouse keeper on a small deserted island and soon finds a lovely wife to come with him. All seems as if life will now be different for Tom, but then his wife, Isabel, loses three babies, all born too soon.

One night a boat appears on the shore of the island. On the boat are a dead man and a crying infant.

An answered prayer?

That is what Isabel thinks, and she convinces Tom to bury the dead man and keep the baby girl.

You know this is not going to be a good idea, don't you?

It's a powerful story, full of the miseries of this life, but also full of the stark beauty that comes out of facing the truth of the miseries.

I think, maybe, my expectations were too high. I was expecting too much. I'd read a number of reviews when this book first came out, all singing Hallelujah Chorus type praises. I should know better than to believe them.

There were a number of things this book did well like Tom's PTSD after returning from the war. That's something that usually gets glossed over in stories set in and after World War I. Instead the author used it, almost made it a character in its own right. You saw it in the decisions Tom made. You felt him struggle with it. I kinda wished the book had delved more into it. But then we probably wouldn't have had time for the soap opera that is Isabel. Her need to be the one to take care of everything and everyone, to have everything, was well sketched. It was like she needed to prove something to everyone. Problem was I was never sure what that something was. I could never quite connect with her as a character because of that. And then there was Hannah. Overly wrought, continuously on the verge of sobbing. Just too much drama. I didn't connect with her any more than I did Isabel. And there was that one section is part 2 that was all Hannah and wow, did I think I was never going to get through it. The story practically came to a stand still.

There were beautiful descriptions of the light, of the processes that were involved with being a keeper. If only the placement of these descriptions hadn't been so clunky. They often took me right out of the story. Better transitions were needed instead of just plopping these things into the narrative where ever.

The ending is what saved the story overall for me. Heartfelt without being too manipulative (though it teetered on the edge of that precipice for a moment or two). The tentative, but still there relationship between Tom and Lucy. was beautiful. It made me wish that the story had just been about them. No Isabel. No Hannah. It's that light that made the pages turn.

Only made it 40% through. The narrator on audible's accent was such that I couldn't speed it up much. The story was pretty interesting but with ~4hrs of listening left there's no way I have the patience to find out what happens next. It's pretty bleak and very well written. I don't read fiction much and this book reveals why: I often feel there is way way way too much irrelevant detail, and then half way through I can't bear to continue because I'm tired of the overall scenario.

Tom & Isabel Sherbourne inhabit the small island of Janus where the lighthouse keeps the boats of the ocean safe. Living on Janus can be hard, distant and sometimes even cold. That's the life of the light keeper and of his wife. Isolation is normal and socializing almost non-existent.

Isabel wants children, more than she can put into words, yet life has other plans. After three miscarriages she doesn't feel she can go on. One dark night, a dingy appears and a baby's wailing floats to where Isabel stands at the shore.

A man (dead) and a newborn are in the dingy...the baby wrapped in a woman's cardigan. Isabel, desperate for a child, convinces Tom not to report the boat, the dead father, or the living, breathing child. The mother must be dead because what mother would leave their child? Tom, seeing the desperation in her eyes (and remembering the pain of what she's been through) cannot refuse her. What they don't expect is that they are wrong, and the child's mother isn't dead at all...their happiness causing another's pain.

I know some will read this book and judge the couple harshly. Yet what people seem to forget is that Tom & Isabel lived in a time where war had ravaged the town, where men who survived came back different and that sometimes loss can cloud one's thinking. Isabel, in her devastating grief, which was extremely fresh, latched onto what she thought was divine intervention. Tom, as a man shadowed by war, couldn't see his way to devastate her and extinguish what little light she had left.

This was beautifully written and was painful in its reading. This wasn't a who is right and they are wrong type book. This was desperation turned bad decision which in turn caused a lot of heartache for everyone involved, but even still...in the darkest pit of despair there is always hope. Have tissues ready.

When I started this book, I was confused. I kept reading and became intrigued. I soon became compelled to finish it. I never went in search of a book based on living in a lighthouse in the southern hemisphere in the year following WWI, but that's what I got. And it turned out to be a great read.[bc:The Light Between Oceans 13158800 The Light Between Oceans M.L. Stedman https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1336683021l/13158800.SY75.jpg 18337340] The Light Between Oceans gave a glimpse of what it was like to live in Australia in the 1920s and '30s. Set on the most southwestern tip of Australia, where the Pacific meets the Indian Ocean, it becomes the chronicle of what NOT to do if you've had several miscarriages, live on an almost uninhabited island, and find a dead man's body in a boat with a live baby.I found the conflict of the situation fascinating. A young married couple, starting out life far from civilization soon become ensnared in a drama neither can handle. The young husband, a soldier haunted by WWI, wants to give his new wife everything he can, which is little. Tom has taken a position as a lighthouse keeper which pays little and promises a lot of work filled with long, lonely hours on a remote spot. His young wife, Isabel, is full of life, completely in love, and ready to start a family. Of course, the universe has other plans.After several, nearly deadly miscarriages, all occurring miles from any medical care, Isabel believes a shipwrecked rowboat that washes ashore containing a dead man and a newborn baby is a sign from God. Isabel wants to take care of the baby and convinces Tom not to tell anyone—at least for a while. It's an easy secret to keep when you don't get shore leave for 18 months, and supplies are only delivered once every three months. The moral struggle starts over whether the baby's mother is alive and missing her child. Both Tom & Isabel believe the dead man in the boat is the baby's father. Eventually, their ability to keep the secret about Lucy's origins begins to fray.I want to talk about the ending for a second, without spoiling it. It didn't turn out like I thought. It was well done and, in the end, believable. In fact, the whole book was well done, accurately evoking the time period and the continent in an eloquent way. I could almost feel the salt spray. READ THIS BOOK!

The Light Between Oceans is a phenomenal story about a lighthouse keeper and his wife. The book starts with the fateful event where a boat washes up with a dead man and live baby girl. Then the story skips back (Part 1) and tells about Tom's life before he met Isabel and shows their love story leading up to the “main event”. Some people say the book started off slow for them, but I felt like the beginning was necessary because you really get to know Tom and Isabel - Tom is a genuine, gentle, determined man who has been through hard times and would do anything for his wife, and Isabel is a very lively, stubborn woman who would do anything for a child after having trouble with miscarriages and stillbirth.

It almost feels like fate that a baby washed up, but Tom always feels an uneasiness about going along with Isabel's wish to keep her. Part 2 of the book concentrates on Tom trying to reconcile his love for the child with his inner turmoil. Then Part 3 describes the drama after they are found out and the consequences for all involved.

The story is very steady and extremely well written. There are so many profound quotes.. I found myself having to get up and find another book mark quite often. Here are some of my favorites:

You could kill a bloke with rules... And yet sometimes they are what stood between a man and savagery, between man and monster.Right and wrong can be like bloody snakes: so tangled up that you can't tell which is which until you've shot ‘em both.You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day every day. You have to keep remembering all the bad things.

The character development is just oozing with goodness. I found myself so frustrated and angry with Isabel at times but realized that it's because the writing is so great. You just get so invested in the characters and so drawn into the story. The plot is so constantly unfolding that it's hard to put down.

I didn't agree with every decision that the characters made, but that's the point of this story.. that the lines between right and wrong are not always clear, and that good people don't always do good things- and regardless there are consequences. Therefore, I thought the ending was perfectly chosen.

Sidenote: I feel like this book completely embodies the story of the song The Lighthouse's Tale by Nickel Creek. I can't help wondering if that could be where the author found some inspiration.

I am a lighthouse, worn by the weather and the waves.I keep my lamp lit, to warn the sailors on their way.I'll tell a story, paint you a picture from my past.I was so happy, but joy on this life seldom lasts....And the waves crashing around me, the sand slips out to sea.And the winds that blow remind me, of what has been, and what can never be.

And since I'm wholeheartedly obsessed with Nickel Creek, this being my favorite song of theirs, it makes me love this book even more.

I ABSOLUTELTY cannot wait for M.L. Stedman's next book!

This review is also posted on Great Minds Read Alike.

A touching story and a potential page-turner that was unfortunately bogged down in the flowery and metaphor laden language that made the author seem too much of a literary try-hard. The best part of the book was the delivery of the emotions from character to audience, although the decision making by some of the characters was quite maddening at times. Overall, a strong recommendation for a strong emotional, deep, and thought-provoking read, but look elsewhere if you like your books with humor - not an ounce of laughter to be found here in the slightest.