“An extraordinary and heart-rending book about good people, tragic decisions and the beauty found in each of them.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
After seeing the Light Between the Oceans recommended so many times on our Facebook page I couldn’t resist picking it up in tatty paperback when I spotted a copy in a second hand shop. It’s sat on my TBR for a while as I had no idea what it was about but I picked it up last week and devoured it in virtually one sitting.
Historical fiction, The Light Between the Oceans is set in the early 1900s, just after the first World War, as we see Tom take the job as a solitary lighthouse keeper. The undercurrent of the book is quite firm, being a lighthouse keeper can send you mad, especially if you’re unmarried but Tom doesn’t need to worry as he falls in love in the first quarter of the book, gets married and so begins a beautiful love affair, a permanent honeymoon on a beautiful island.
It’s one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read, the language is descriptive and I can clearly conjure up images of the island, Janus Rock in my mind. After reading you feel like you’ve stood on the rocks feeling the wind and spray hit your face, the writing really is that stunning.
The course of true love never runs smoothly and the love in the Light Between the Oceans is no different. Facing a moral challenge most newly married people couldn’t imagine, Tom and Isabel face a dilemma and as you live it with them, you’ll start to wonder yourself what is right and what is wrong and what is the difference between the two.
One of my favourite books of this year, highly recommended!
Reviewed by:
Kath Cross
Added 27th June 2017
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
The book is set in Partageuse, South West Australia. Tom Sherbourne, just home from the First World War takes a job as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock to counteract the effects of war; needing the silence and nature to soothe his troubled mind. The island is miles off the coast of Partageuse and the store boat only visits every three months, the lighthouse keeper is granted a month’s leave every three years. Tom is meticulous in carrying out his duties and is principled and disciplined. I loved Tom’s character, his quiet dignity and diligence, the love he felt for his wife. A good man put in a terrible position.
Whilst on leave in Partageuse, Tom meets Izzy, the two fall in love and move back to Janus to start married life together. Izzy’s greatest wish is to have a child and when she suffers two miscarriages and then a stillbirth, she is heartbroken.
The crux of the story comes into being when a boat is washed up with a dead man and a baby inside. Against every moral fibre of his being, Tom is convinced by Izzy to let her keep the baby. You know this is not going to end well.
The descriptions of the island and the lighthouse with the weather and the sense of isolation are just wonderful, so evocative that it has you yearning for life on Janus.
The genius of this book is making all the characters real, normal, flawed individuals who are ultimately good people with such tragic life stories that you really feel for them and understand the decisions made…until you meet the person who has been affected by that decision, who is also a good person who life hasn’t treated at all well. The layers keep peeling away like onion skins and you are forced to confront your own moral standpoint.
The author has created the ultimate moral dilemma and this book is deeply, deeply affecting and so emotional, it had me sobbing through parts of it. The story covers all sorts of emotions; love, guilt, grief, morality, remorse, but with such a deft hand that although it is heart rending, it is also beautiful and immensely readable. Unbelievable that this is a debut novel.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough and as it is going to be released as a film in the autumn now is the perfect time to read it.
Reviewed by:
Sandra Foy
Added 20th April 2016
