Kilbourn Public Library Book Club

For February the Kilbourn Public Library Book Discussion Group is reading The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. 

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 from the coast.  To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. 

Years later, after two miscarriages and one still birth, 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, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately.  But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast.  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.

M. L. Stedman's mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel's decision to keep this "gift from God."  And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another's tragic loss.

Why do you think the author selected the title, The Light Between Oceans, for this novel?

Think about the impact of living in seclusion on both Tom and Isabel.  Why do you think each of them is drawn to Janus Rock?  Do you think, in the moments when we are unobserved, we are different people?

Tom believes that rules are vital, that they are what keep a man from becoming a savage.  Do you agree with him?

Which characters won your sympathy and why?  Did this change over the course of the novel?  Did your notion of what was best or right shift in the course of your reading?

What did you think of the conclusion of the novel?  What emotions did you feel at the story's end?  Did it turn out as you expected?  Were you satisfied?

Let us know what you think of The Light Between Oceans.