The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman Australia 1926.
After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front
Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the
lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock nearly half a days 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 stillbirth the grieving Isabel hears a babys 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 Toms 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. Stedmans mesmerizing beautifully written
debut novel seduces us into accommodating Isabels 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 anothers tragic
loss.