The Light Between Oceans
By M.L. Steadman
$18.99 Scribner Publishing
It will soon be time for summer holiday reading, so put this title at the top of your list. Be warned that at least four tissues will be needed to mop up.
Tom Sherbourne came back from the war of 1914-1918 a changed man, as did all those lucky enough to come back at all.
He had seen friends blown apart in mid sentence. Many who came home were lost souls, who had seen too much, the “shell-shock” sidelining them for life.
Tom wanted peace and quiet, and he found it as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, half a day’s journey from Point Partageuese, South Western Australia.
Tom is a salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He has been a brave soldier, much decorated, and he felt keenly the loss of his comrades.
As a lighthouse keeper, he proved meticulous at record keeping, and making the place ship-shape.
He saw no one but seabirds for months at a time; a healing time after the bitter war.
In a rare trip to Partageuese, he meets Isabel and he can’t believe his good fortune.
They marry and Isabel seems to thrive on their isolated island. When Isabel becomes pregnant, they are both excited. Isabel reads books and Tom worries over resources like any soon to be father.
But Isabel miscarries and their dreams are curtailed. When the second pregnancy also ends in miscarriage, they are both shocked at the unfairness of life.
Finally, she carries a baby almost full term, but one horrific night the child is stillborn.
They are alone on Janus Rock and Isabel cannot bear to tell her parents of what she sees as yet another failure.
Soon after, a small boat knocks against the shore of Janus Rock. On board are a dead man and a very much alive new baby girl. It is the baby’s cry that brings Isabel and Tom down to the boat.
Tom knows that his report must include the details of the landing and he sets out to do so.
Isabel sees the arrival as a gift of God, after so much sorrow. The baby is anxious to be soothed and fed, and Isabel loves her on sight.
The dead man must be buried and Tom does that, but Isabel prevails on him to “wait a bit” with his report.
So the days pass. Tom is a man of principle and he warns Isabel that “somewhere there is a mother, missing her husband and child.”
Isabel’s family knew she was due to give birth, and the men who come with the supply boat every few months, so they are not surprised that a baby has arrived.
Time goes by and the little girl, Lucy, turns two years old. A visit is planned to the mainland to meet Isabel’s parents at last.
On shore they hear of other’s losses and realize their actions have consequences. Their own dream must come to an end.
It’s a heartbreaking yarn, and the author’s first book.
Peggy Freeman is a local freelance books reviewer.