The Light Between Oceans
Western Australia, 1926. Tom Sherbourne, a returned soldier still flinching at the memory of the Western Front, takes a posting as lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, a windswept island a half day's sail from the mainland. He brings his young wife Isabel with him and they settle into the strange quiet of the light, a marriage tended carefully against the silence of the sea. Three pregnancies end in loss before a small boat washes ashore one April morning carrying a dead man and a living infant. Isabel believes the child is a gift from God; Tom, sworn to log every event at the light, agrees to a single decision that will silently reshape three lives. Years later, on shore leave, they meet a grieving woman in a churchyard, and the choice they made on Janus Rock catches up with them. M. L. Stedman's debut is a quiet, devastating novel about love and conscience and the unbearable weight of doing what feels right.
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After the Great War, shell-shocked Australian veteran Tom Sherbourne becomes the lighthouse keeper of Janus Rock, half a day's sail from the mainland, with his wife Isabel. After two miscarriages and a stillbirth, a dinghy washes onto their island carrying a dead man and a living baby girl.
Yes. Derek Cianfrance directed a 2016 film adaptation starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Rachel Weisz. The film follows the novel's premise of a lighthouse keeper and his wife who keep a baby washed ashore.
No. The Light Between Oceans is fictional. M.L. Stedman has said the premise came from imagining the moral dilemma rather than any specific case.
The Light Between Oceans was written by M. L. Stedman, published in 2012 by Scribner.
The Light Between Oceans is 345 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Light Between Oceans takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
The Light Between Oceans is a standalone novel by M. L. Stedman, not part of a series.
The Light Between Oceans is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
