"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."
