“The Light between Oceans” is a haunting story about love, loss, the effects of isolation and the consequences of the choices we make. I loved this book, and it is on my list of favourites read this year. It made me smile and it made me cry, and it questioned all previous beliefs I ever held about the black and white of right or wrong, and what it means to “do the right thing”.
Set in the South-West corner of Westerns Australia, the story tells of Tom Sherbourne, a young serviceman recently returned from the horrors of the WW1 battlefields, who takes a posting as lighthousekeeper on the remote little island of Janus Rock, off the coast between Albany and the fictional settlement of Point Partageuse. Comforted by the isolation of the island and the routine of maintaining the light and keeping records of the weather, Tom’s emotional scars left over from the war slowly begin to heal. When he falls in love with Isabel Graysmark, a beautiful and headstrong young woman from Point Partageuse, and brings her to the island as his wife, both are filled with love and hope for the future. But after several miscarriages and stillbirths, their relationship has become overshadowed by grief, and Isabel’s overwhelming desire to have a child. One day, after a storm, Tom discovers a boat which has been washed ashore on the island, containing the corpse of a man and a crying baby girl. Convinced that the child was sent to them as a “gift from God”, Isabel persuades Tom not to report the incident, but to raise the child as their own. However, the happiness their new daughter brings the couple is soon being overshadowed by consequences of their decision neither has been able to foresee.
The strength of this novel lies in the development of its characters, whose innermost thoughts, desires and motives are being openly exposed and explored, until the reader is completely drawn into the minds of the three main protagonists. Because all decisions are made out of love and the conviction of doing the right thing at the time, the line between right and wrong becomes blurred and I felt constantly torn between my sympathies for everyone involved, knowing that every path chosen or decision made would cause pain to someone – an impossible choice.
Having had several miscarriages myself I could relate to Isabel’s pain and unquenchable desire to have a child, to the verge of destroying their marriage and her own sanity. Her decision to keep the foundling and her reasonings therefore rang true, and I could never blame her for it, despite the consequences and the pain this caused another woman. I also suffered for Tom, torn between love for his wife and daughter, and doing what he felt was “the right thing”. Out of all the characters, he probably had the hardest choices to make, as he never had Isabel’s conviction of having made the right decision, and knew that whatever he did would cause pain to others. And who would not feel for Hannah, the other victim in all of this, through no fault of her own? At times reading the novel felt like trying to solve one of Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas, where any decision you make always involves some horrible sacrifice – the question being only which is the lesser evil. Maybe my desire for a solution that would accommodate all people involved was a foolish one, and one that was not granted by the book’s ending, which left me with a faint echo of sorrow for the rest of the day.
Apart from its characters, Stedman has also beautifully captured the essence of South-Western Australia, its countryside and its characters. I live very close to where the fictional place of Point Partageuse would be situated, and the author’s descriptions of the environment rang very true and brought the place alive in my mind. The lighthouse itself closely resembled another place in WA where I have spent a lot of time in the past, imagining the lives of the lighthouskeepers from the past, and the effects of the extreme isolation – both the beauty and the cruel realities. I have experienced the effects of it myself, and commend the author for so realistically portraying them in Isabel.
An outstanding debut novel and a wonderful read - fully recommended.
I am now reading
