The Light Between Oceans: The heartrending Sunday Times bestseller and Richard and Judy pick

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Stedman grounds what could be a far-fetched premise, setting the stage beautifully to allow for a heart-wrenching moral dilemma to play out. But the main reason I haven't read this book up again is because I couldn't remember the actual language being any good.

At some point after I had my own bundle of joy, I considered reading this book again, especially since a number of people I trust mentioned that it was a much better reading experience for them. A single fat cloud snailed across the late-April sky, which stretched above the island in a mirror of the ocean below.

We wouldn’t normally send a single man to Janus—it’s pretty remote and a wife and family can be a great practical help, not just a comfort,” the District Officer had said to Tom. Somewhere in the last third of the book you'll begin to appreciate the mastery in the careful build-up. Having grown up on the East Coast, I don’t know all that much about the history of Western Australia.

Now I have never had a miscarriage, nor have I ever had children, so I guess this is why I hated Isabel so much. Anyway, please read this review knowing that I would not have written it exactly the same today, even though I still dislike the book. The ringleader, a man by the name of McGowan, with a mustache, and fingers yellowed from his Woodbines, said he’d been chatting to one of the stewards about the passenger list: the choice was limited.

The narrator reflects that he’s not “one of the men whose legs trailed by a hank of sinews, or whose guts cascaded from their casing like slithering eels…. At that moment, I started to scream at the book that this is wrong, lots of people are going to get hurt and I wasn’t wrong. But it is also a description of the extraordinary, sustaining power of a marriage to bind two people together in love, through the most emotionally harrowing circumstances. People made lots of babies without much available in the way of birth control, thus there not being much need to focus on anything which curtailed the population. Then, one day, a boat washes ashore with a baby inside – a gift that offers the hope of a future they’ve longed for but the consequences of their actions may be more far-reaching than they could have ever imagined.

Allowing the reader to sympathize with morally ambiguous characters is a difficult task, however, Stedman presents her narrative in such a way that the reader can't help feeling the same inner conflict as Tom and Isabel. Her father disinherited her, she had to work menial labor, she had to suffer a lot to marry the love of her life. A film adaptation of the same name starring Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender was released on 2 September 2016.The lighthouse is itself a character in the novel, and Tom is a meticulous, attentive, even loving keeper. This reading group guide for The Light Between Oceans includes an introduction, discussion questions and ideas for enhancing your book club. I didn't like any of the main characters, I ended up being sympathetic to Hannah aka poor mom who lost the kid, which made it all the more frustrating when crazy woman is constantly shoved in our face. Essentially The Light between Oceans is a novella that has been fattened up on starch and additives to a 446 page novel. Whether for good or for bad, when one reads an historical novel one needs to consider what was normal behavior and procedure for middle and lower class people of that time period.

Much to her and Tom’s surprise, they find that a boat carrying a baby girl and a dead man has unexpectedly come ashore. But seeing it’s only temporary… You’ll leave for Partageuse in two days,” he said, and signed him up for six months. Stedman grounds what could be a far-fetched premise, setting the stage beautifully to allow for a heart-wrenching moral dilemma to play out, making evident that “Right and wrong can be like bloody snakes: so tangled up that you can’t tell which is which until you’ve shot ’em both, and then it’s too late. Considering this is Stedman's first published novel, I am incredibly excited to see what she produces next. It was interesting to read a book that felt the entire way through like there is no chance for a happy ending.You know I’d do anything for you, darl, but—whoever that man is and whatever he’s done, he deserves to be dealt with properly.