The Light Between Oceans

Note from the librarian: This is an alternative cover version.

1926; Australia. Tom Sherbourne, who spent four terrifying years fighting on the Western Front, comes home and accepts a position as lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, which is located about thirty minutes from the shore. Tom sends his young, brave, and devoted wife Isabel to this remote island, where the supply boat only visits once a season and shore leaves are only available every other year at most. A baby's screams are heard on the wind by the heartbroken Isabel years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth. A dead guy and a live infant were found aboard a boat that washed ashore on land.

Tom wants to report the guy and baby right away because he keeps thorough records as a lighthouse keeper and because his moral convictions have survived a horrible war. However, Isabel has brought the little child to her breast. They christen her Lucy and take her as their own, against Tom's disapproval. Tom and Isabel are reminded that there are other people in the world when they return to the mainland when Isabel is two years old. One of them is heartbroken by their decision.

The captivating and exquisitely written first book by M. L. Stedman entices us to support Isabel's choice to preserve this "gift from God." And we are swept up into a tale of very interesting individuals trying to locate their North Star in a world where there are no right or wrong answers and where one person's devastating loss is another's act of justice.