The Light Between Oceans
The debut of a stunning
new voice in fiction— a novel both heartbreaking and transcendent - 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 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.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.The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and
unforgettable, a deeply moving novel. Joyce also recommends Night Roads by Kristin
Hannah
