the light between two oceans book review

You’re relief, so you don’t get holidays. You’re probably right on that score.” He rattled off some rules: “You pay your own passage to every posting. The man looked again at the details on the discharge papers, then at Tom, searching for something in his eyes, in his face. Coughlan, it’s not likely to be tougher than the Western Front.”

“It can’t-” Tom stopped, and began again. The rules stipulated that preference should be given to ex-servicemen. Tom’s letter of application had told the same story as many a fellow’s around that time: born 28 September 1893 war spent in the Army experience with the International Code and Morse physically fit and well honorable discharge. Not that Byron Bay’s the worst posting on the Lights, but I want to make sure you know what you’re in for.” He tamped down the tobacco with his thumb and lit his pipe. “I mean very tough.” The man across the desk leaned forward for emphasis. The Sydney summer rain pelted the window, and sent the people on the pavement scurrying for shelter.

He was sitting in a spartan room, barely cooler than the sultry day outside. Yes, I realize that,” Tom Sherbourne said. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world.

But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. The years-long New York Times bestseller and major motion picture from Spielberg’s Dreamworks is “irresistible…seductive…with a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page” ( O, The Oprah Magazine).Īfter 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.

The light between two oceans book review