'Light Between Oceans' is tough to shake off
In The Light Between Oceans, a stoic, fiercely principled, rather solitary man, recently returned from serving in World War I, meets an effervescent young woman who desperately wants to be a mother. After marrying and settling on a remote island off Western Australia, Tom and Isabel suffer through two miscarriages and a stillbirth. She has just buried their dead child when another baby literally washes up on their shore, accompanied by her lifeless father.
Isabel wants to keep the infant as their own, but Tom, the island's lighthouse keeper, is hesitant ��� and with good reason. There is another woman across the sea, as it turns out, and she too is a grieving mother. Troubled waters lie ahead on both sides.
Light, the much-anticipated first novel by the London-based, Australia-bred writer M.L. Stedman, is at once elegantly rendered and emotionally manipulative. Following the involved parties — including the baby girl, who grows into a precocious toddler — through a string of tormenting and sometimes predictable twists, you may suspect that the author practices heart-wrenching as a kind of craft.
Luckily, Stedman's penchant for darkly dramatic detail doesn't overwhelm her dedication to crafting fully human characters. The relationship between Tom and Isabel, in particular, is beautifully drawn. During their courtship, you can almost visualize this robust, vivacious girl breathing life into a quiet man whose shattering experiences — not just in battle, but within his own broken family — have taught him to expect little.
Similarly, it's easy to both sympathize with Isabel's attempts to rationalize her morally questionable decisions and to share in Tom's growing frustration as he harbors their secrets against his better instincts.
And to the author's credit, Light's resolution is neither sensationalistic nor overly tidy. Everyone in this book has to make tough choices, including the little girl. By letting neither her readers nor her characters off the hook easily, Stedman creates a bond that makes her book tough to shake off.