The book is set in the early 1900s and tells the story of an ex-soldier and his wife living alone on a remote island. One day a boat arrives on shore carrying a dead man and a baby and this story is about the decisions they make that day and the consequences they discover years later.
It’s a story of love, of discovery, of justification, and, perhaps most important of all – moral responsibility. It’s a book about right and wrong – and the thin line that separates the two. What is morally right? How does it differ between people? How do social norms affect this line? How does religious interpretation factor in? How does your personal experience help you justify a shift? How “bendable” is that line when you’re removed from society and the only person holding you accountable for your actions is yourself?
The Light Between Oceans explores these questions exceptionally well without ever directly addressing them. From start to finish it is beautifully paced and easy to read. Characters and locations are perfectly described so I always felt I had a clear understanding of the setting, the characters, their motivations, and their reasons for their actions. Each main character had their own backgrounds explained, as well as the thought processes and struggles which lead to their behaviours. This made their actions in the framing story make sense and allowed the exploration of the questions from the paragraph above in a very relatable way. They felt like very “real”, well thought out characters whose actions married perfectly with their life experience and social expectations.
I came away from the story feeling I had a true sense of what daily life was like in this town, and of the culture and its impact society. Maybe it’s because I’m Australian and this story is set in Western Aus. but it felt like a very “realistic” looking glass to the time – even though, obviously, I wasn’t alive in the 1920s!
As a religious agnostic I felt it particularly interesting to see how the role of religion affected the culture of the town and societal norms. How it was used to justify behaviour (both good and bad) and how it was used to give people living tough lives a sense of order and guidelines for “right and wrong”. I was particularly interested, as the story unfolds, in how those guidelines were interpreted and “bent” to provide various characters with solace. Just to be clear – this novel isn’t anti-religion. If anything it shows how the religious community kept a town together. It’s really hard not to go into specifics to prove my point but it would spoil part of the story – and I’m a firm believer that there’s nothing like discovering a story for the first time – completely fresh!
There was only one part of the story I thought fell a bit short and that was when the couple completed their last stint on the island and returned to the town of Partageuse. I felt Stedman could have delved deeper into the cause of the severe changes for one of the characters. You can extrapolate based on the information given – and it’s clear to see why things needed to happen for the story to progress – but it would have been nice to have, perhaps, an extra chapter delving into the mindset of the character mentioned. Is that spoiler free enough? Lol.
The Light Between Oceans is an absolutely stellar book. Easy to read but not simple. Engaging from start to finish. An emotional journey, especially for anyone who is, or has tried to be, a parent. There are some absolutely heart wrenching moments which leave you feeling helpless – but it’s never contrived and feels like a well-constructed story with greater depth than it appears at first.