The years-long New York Times bestseller soon to be a major motion picture from Spielberg’s Dreamworks that is “irresistible…seductive…with a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page” (O, The Oprah Magazine).
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey … nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
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Tom & Isabel Sherbourne inhabit the small island of Janus where the lighthouse keeps the boats of the ocean safe. Living on Janus can be hard, distant and sometimes even cold. That’s the life of the light keeper and of his wife. Isolation is normal and socializing almost non-existent.
Isabel wants children, more than she can put into words, yet …
It is a fascinating story of how fate can change in a second.
Amazing, engrossing story. Heartbreaking. I couldn’t put it down.
The Light Between Oceans is a beautiful novel! A wrenching story of how a wrong decision changes the course of a life. The characters of this novel are artfully painted, and you live and breathe their world. The setting of a remote island off the coast of Australia only adds to the mystery and intrigue. The back story referencing World War I and …
What a horrible story. This book was filled with nothing but sadness and despair. The author should be plucked bald for what she put me through.
This emotional story will challenge the reader with questions of how to right a wrong decision based in love, but wrong none-the-less. The characters ring true, complex and flawed. Finding the “right” answer isn’t easy — what’s right for one person may be wrong for another. This is a thoughtful and moving story that will stay with you for a long …
excellent read but have tissues nearby.
The Light Between Oceans is an exquisite exposition of human vulnerability. It is about the insurmountable need to give love to a child, and the intricately linked selfishness and selflessness involved in this act.
The story of Isabel and Tom and little Lucy the ocean brought to their doorstep is set against the sweeping background of the interwar …
Tom returns home to Australia from the trenches of WW1 to become lighthouse keeper at a remote island south of Perth. He marries Isabelle, brings her to live at his isolated outpost, and their plan to start a family is stymied by three miscarriages. Fortuitously, a dingy washes up with a dead body and a very much alive infant. Isabelle persuades …
I have never been so moved by a book. I was listening to the audio while driving and had to pull over and sob. This book made me question my own morals, to be honest. One of my top books of all time. Emotional and haunting.
Skillfully authored book. Beautiful words. A bit of an improbable story, but compelling enough to be a page-turner. The movie is a waste of time.
This book changed my life. It helped me begin to take stock of where I am in this world and it invited me (strongly) to consider missteps I’ve made along the way, while managing to plant seeds in my mind….the kind of seeds, that with nourishment, contain the very real possibility of redemption. There are precious few novels meaningful enough to …
Wow! This one was marvelous! You can’t unsee the images this book conjures into your imagination. I thought it would just be a sweet romance about a couple who owned a lighthouse. I should now by now never to judge a book by its cover.
Oh, so good. The sadness of loss and yearning are relieved as Isabel’s prayers are answered with a baby for she and Tom to call their own. The perfect place to raise a child, on a little swatch of island, lit with a single light, the family is secluded and happy. But when the time comes for Tom, Isabel and Lucy to return to the mainland they’re …
Usually I will sit with the memory of a book in my mind long enough to have it settle. I let it linger on the tastebuds of my heart like wine as I clarify my emotions. With this book, I know the aftertaste will linger with me for some time to come. Its characters will stay in the eddy of my memories, the sediment almost as real as the earth at my …
A wonderful story, extremely well-written, evoking time and place
Would read it again sometime in the future.
Exceptional writing and a depth of characters and location, makes this worth a read. I’m getting more engrossed in the story everyday…
It was a beautiful idea to start with, but somehow it evaporated throughout the book.
There was sometimes something a little weak in describing the characters, the reactions, and the thoughts.
I couldn’t connect to Isabelle, one of the main characters. I know she’s been through some difficult things and I’m not supposed to judge her, but …
Couldn’t put it down from the halfway point on. Heartbreaking and beautiful. Made me teary by the end.