THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L. Stedman

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Tom returns home to Australia from the trenches of WW1 to become lighthouse keeper at a remote island south of Perth. He marries Isabelle, brings her to live at his isolated outpost, and their plan to start a family is stymied by three miscarriages. Fortuitously, a dingy washes up with a dead body and a very much alive infant. Isabelle persuades Tom to break the rules and keep the baby, turning them into a ready-made family, until they visit the mainland and encounter the grief-stricken natural mother. The improbable plot and unlikely twists nearly put me off, but Ms. Stedman’s excellent writing, with comfortable authenticity in setting descriptions and dialogue, kept me engaged to the end. Tom is a wonderfully complex character, driven by guilt, duty, honor, and loyalty. We get enough snippets of his war experience to decide for ourselves how much the war has damaged him, and influenced his bad choices. While Isabelle and Tom’s act seems destined to be exposed, a sense of suspense propels the story, as we come to realize how two families have been devastated, and can never go back.