The Light Between Oceans

An incredibly sad and moving story of love and heartbreak written by M.L. Stedman called The Light Between Oceans.  The story is set in Australia and begins with the main character, Tom Sherbourne’s return from fighting in World War I. He gets a job opportunity working at a lighthouse overseeing the ocean.  He meets a visiting young woman, Isabel, who he eventually marries.  The couple lives on the remote end of the island at the lighthouse, only returning to see her family from time to time.  The couple desperately hope to conceive children, which they finally do.  The couple is exuberant with the news, but alas, Isabel has a miscarriage.  The struggles continue for the two and after two more miscarriages it appears their hopes of being a parent disappears.  Two weeks after the third miscarriage, Tom notices a boat has drifted ashore.  As he enters the boat he hears shrieks, a child is on the boat! Along with a deceased man, presumably the father.  Tom tells Isabel, and she helps nurse the baby to health, using her own breast milk, which started to come in during her 7^th month of pregnancy.  Tom also buries the man’s body so no one will realize that he was with the child. Tom suggests they bring the baby into the village to see if they can locate family.  Isabel is hesitant and that marks the challenge in their ethical dilemma, what to do.  Isabel drags the process out and after a significant period of time passes and acquaintances visit, Isabel passes the young child as her own newborn, not alluding to the fact she had a miscarriage. Tom is consumed with guilt and eventually when they go to mainland two years later he learns of a mother who lost a husband at sea with a newborn baby.  What to do?  Tom pleads with Isabel to turn the baby over, while Isabel refuses.  What happens next will surprise, Tom writes a note indicating that a man and woman who have stolen the woman’s child!  Both Tom and Isabel have very challenging “next steps” in a story that has no winners, only losers.  Beautifully written, but I would not suggest listening to it… the Aussie accent is hard to decipher!  A story that challenges the human condition in how to handle adversity.  A best-selling novel, well worth picking up.