"The Light Between Oceans"

"The Light Between Oceans" is M. L. Stedman's first novel and I hope it won't be her last.  She was born and raised in Western Australia and her novel is set in Australia although she now lives in London.

Stedman weaves a complex tale full of emotion and our hero, Tom Sherbourne, is the pivotal figure.  He has spent four long years on the Western Front and comes home haunted with what he's seen in the war and  by the men who he knew who died.  It's not something he wants to talk about.

Post war finds him rescuing one woman, marrying another and becoming a lighthouse keeper -- a lonely and remote job but made bearable when he married Isabel.  Isabel is the perfect mate for him but several miscarriages leave her grieving over her inability to bear a living child.  When a boat washes up on shore with a dead man and a live baby in it, Isabel wants to keep the child and is convinced the child's mother must be dead, too.  Having recently given birth to a stillborn child, she convinces Tom (against his better judgement) not to log the man's death and the appearance of the child.  They begin to raise the child, Lucy, as their own.

However, when Tom discovers the true circumstances behind the child's parentage, he tries to convince Isabel that they must tell the truth but, by then, she is too firmly attached to let Lucy go.  As a result, Tom is faced with a wrenching decision and an ultimate decision that hurts his daughter, his wife, and another woman as well as himself.  pazt