The Light Between Oceans: a Novel by M. L. Stedman
In the aftermath World War I, Tom Sherbourne is still recovering psychologically from the war when he takes the job as lighthouse keeper on tiny Janus Island off the coast of Australia. He hopes the solitude and steady job will help him recover from the devastating memories of the wounded, the dying and the killing.
He never expected a young woman from the mainland town to be attracted to him, let alone want to marry him. Tom and Isabel are deeply in love when they marry and settle on the remote island. Life goes relatively well until she suffers 2 miscarriages and then a still born birth. Shortly after, a boat washes up on the shore and inside it Tom and Isabel find a baby girl and a dead man. Undone from her losses, she begs Tom to let her have time with the baby before they notify the authorities. Against his better judgment, he relents but this decision and subsequent actions will lead to a family and to a love that he never knew he could feel. It will also lead to his downfall and ruin. This first novel brilliantly persuades us to suspend any simple judgments of how a good man could make such a wrong decision.
