An ocean cannot separate the love of a mother to a child…
~Sheila
Tom Sherbourne carries with him many ghosts of his past but his current life and future looks bright. Tom meets the lovely Isabel and upon their marriage they move out to Janus Rock where they live an isolated life and Tom works as the Lighthouse keeper. Visitors are few and a supply boat comes once every few months.
As the years go on, Isabel suffers through a series of miscarriages, each one leaving her a little more fragile. Then, shortly after Isabel’s third miscarriage, a cry is heard in the wind.
A babies cry.
What Tom and Isabel discover is that a boat has washed upon shore and in it a dead man and a crying baby girl. Tom wishes to report this right away, but Isabel suddenly snaps out of her depression state and feels that the baby must be a gift from God and despite Tom’s uncertainty, Isabel names the child Lucy and for the next three years they raise her as their own. As Isabel grows more and more happy, Tom starts to think that perhaps she was right and he too loves Lucy and takes her in his heart as his own.
When they do make the trip into shore on that third year, they discover the whole story of the man they found in the boat that day… and somewhere close, a woman… a mother… grieves for the disappearance of her husband and baby daughter. Torn between what is right and what feels right… Tom feels they must do the right thing, while Isabel feels that she is the child’s mother and that is the right thing.
There is so many levels of depth to this book that it is hard to know where to begin. Obviously, the heart of the story lies within baby Lucy, a child found at an infant age and knows no one else but Tom and Isabel. Tie the isolation of where they live in with that scene and you have a trio of people who rely literally on one another for safety, comfort, companionship, and of course… family.
This is of course what makes M.L. Stedman’s book stand out. When you enter in the real mother to Lucy… a grieving mother whose heart is broken over the loss of her daughter, the lines between right and wrong get a little blurry…. AND reader, before you say “Oh, there is no blurry line for me, I know exactly what I would do!”, you would need to read this book first and then tell me again… what would you do?
The levels of depth I mention in The Light Between Oceans is exactly what sets it apart from perhaps other books of its kind. By the time M. L. Stedman is done tugging at your heart in one way and then another… you, like me, may find what you thought you would do… not what you are hoping and praying for as you turn each page.
Filled with moral, legal, painful, heart impacted decisions – The Light Between Oceans makes for a great book to discuss with friends and still rethink it on your own.
Bookies Thoughts…
My book club read this as our May read and we came up with as a whole that the book does indeed leave a mark. While some found it predictable and pretty non eventful until the end, others found it to be an interesting take on the situation. Of course, the moral discussion was a big topic and as a group we created our own loop hope of how we would handle it which of course, would not have been as interesting to read about… but certainly easier on the heart. 😀
Book Journey 