The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Some people have this problem…

I never do, I always — always race to read the book before seeing the film.  I even avoid the trailers as I don’t want the character images in my head shattered by the Hollywood portrayal.

The Light Between Oceans is a enthralling tale, capturing me from this first line:

On the day of the miracle, Isabel was kneeling at the cliff’s edge, tending the small, newly made driftwood cross,

This is a debut novel by M.L. Stedman, who was born and raised in Western Australia. Her knowledge and descriptions of the coast of Australia are beautifully rendered.  There’s even a map at the beginning.  (I love me a map with a novel). The author has also done her homework on light houses — but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Tom Sherbourne has miraculously survived World War I, but only just.  Still shattered, he is hired to keep the lighthouse on Janus, an island off the coast of Australia.  As the sole inhabitant of the tiny island, he finds comfort with the precision and routine of manning the lighthouse;

Stick to the solid.  To the brass fittings which had to be polished, the glass which had to be cleaned.  Getting the oil in, keeping the cogs moving, topping up the mercury to let the light glide.  He gripped each like a rung of a ladder, by which to haul himself back to the knowable; back to his life.

But then during a break on the mainland, he falls in love with Isabel, they marry and return to the island to run the lighthouse together. The chapter  where he shows Isabel around the lighthouse and explains how it works is pure magic with lovely descriptive writing.  Isabel sees the lighthouse as…”a palace of prisms, like a beehive made of glass”.

At this point in the story I believe the reader should adapt what is called a willing suspension of disbelief.   Isabel and Tom have suffered two miscarriages and tragically, a third stillbirth. 

A few weeks later, a canoe washes ashore containing a dead man and a live baby girl.  Tom wants to report the dead man and take the baby to the mainland to find her family — but Isabel begs him to keep the child. He reluctantly agrees and this begins the cycle of consequences.

Thus, the suspension of belief – I kept reading, entranced but amazed at their actions.   They bury the man and keep the baby.  Both Tom and Isabel fall completely in love with the little girl they name Lucy. When they found Lucy, all that was with her was a beautiful silver rattle. There is no other identification.

Do they wonder about the baby’s grieving family on the mainland?  Don’t they want to know the circumstances of the man’s death, not to mention his identity?  Aren’t they concerned by the fact that they have broken the law?  The couple suspend all rational actions and thoughts, and they blithely build their idyllic life on the island, with their magic baby.

Now dear readers, we’re at the middle of the novel and this is where my willingness to suspend belief almost became a willingness to suspend reading.  But, I had to carry on, keenly interested to know the outcome for our little family on the island.

Now we read through redundant circles of Tom grappling with his love and  loyalty to Isabel and his sense of morality of what they have done  We experience the anguish and consequences of the decisions made, and not made. We meet the real mother and discover how nothing is purely right or wrong — all beautifully written but overwrought.  In the back of my mind I kept thinking,  “This would make a great film”.

The second half of the book is stoked with pathos and emotions on full power.  And the ending, though probably right and ultimately quite moving, leaps over many of the key events – leaving much for the reader to question.

I gave my copy of The Light Between Oceans to a departing house guest and decided to only say, “this will be a great plane book” – which I am positive it will be.

Because, despite my criticisms, I was smitten by this best-seller and I kept reading to the end.  I’m sure it will make a lovely, tear jerking, Hallmark sort of film  — not to mention, a very successful new author.

If you want to see the film trailer before reading this novel you can see it  HERE.

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