The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman was published in 2012 and it was the first novel by the author who was born and grew up in Western Australia.
This one was a good read although at times a really tragic one.
The tale begins in 1926 and the setting is Janus Rock which is a tiny island with a lighthouse on it. Tom is the lighthouse keeper and he and his wife Izzy are the only inhabitants, they stay there for a year and get off it for a couple of weeks before returning. They get a visit from two men on a boat who bring them supplies and any letters once every three months. It takes a special sort of person to be able to cope with such an isolated location.
The action quickly skips back to December 1918 when Tom has got back from the war where he was an officer. Like many others he’s desperate to get a job, he’s glad to be in one piece but he knows that he’ll never be the same again after what he has experienced in the war. The peace and quiet of a remote island is just the sort of work he wants to heal his soul and after a few years there he meets and marries Izzy.
It seems like an idylic existence but Izzy suffers multiple miscarriages/still birth, she longs for a baby so when a small boat containing a dead man and a live baby washes up on the island, Izzy persuades Tom to allow her to keep the baby and pretend it is theirs. Izzy believes the baby’s mother must have been washed overboard so nobody would be missing the baby, it seems like an answer to her prayers but it turns out that it isn’t as simple as that.
This isn’t my usual sort of read but I decided to read it after reading a review on a blog I regularly visit but I can’t find which one it was, as often happens. I enjoyed it although I had to suspend my disbelief at times as how likely is it that a baby will wash up on your island just when you need one!
The blurb on the front says, ‘An extraordinary and heart-rending book about good people, tragic decisions and the beauty found in each of them,’ Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief.
It has recently been made into a film and you can see a trailer for it below.
It was my blog, I enjoyed this book and would like to see the movie. Maybe the actress that plays Isabel will make me warm more to the character. I couldn’t like her in the book.
Peggy,
Oops! Did you tag that post as I googled it and you didn’t pop up.
I know what you mean about Izzy, and in reality out there on her won with no doctor she would have bled to death anyway so it isn’t entirely realistic.
I tried reading this book a few years ago, but I wasn’t in a state of mind to handle the anticipation of a sad ending. I don’t even know how it ended, so maybe I’ll try it again someday. I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to sad books:) I used to feel obligated to read them when I was younger, especially if it was a true story, but reading for me has become more of an escape as I’ve gotten older, so I look for something of substance but not heavy…make sense?
Paula
Paula,
I’m exactly the same as you. There are enough bad things going on in the news so I like to be able to ‘live’ in something more uplifting by way of a book.
I thought this book was beautiful, I read it years ago when it was just a book no one knew about.
I have yet to watch the film, probably because I know I am going to cry.
Jo,
I probably read about it on The Book Jotter years ago then. I think it’ll probably be a beautifully shot film, but I’ll probably wait until it comes on the TV before watching it.
I loved this book. I’d happily read it again. And I must get around to the film.
Sandra,
That film will probably be a tear-jerker, I’ll wait for it coming on TV.