The Light Between Oceans

A Novel

By: M. L. Stedman

Narrated by: Noah Taylor

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

A captivating, beautiful, and stunningly accomplished debut novel - the story of a lighthouse keeper and his wife who make one devastating choice that forever changes two worlds.

In 1918, after four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia to take a job as the lighthouse keeper on remote Janus Rock. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes only four times a year and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Three years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel is tending the grave of her newly lost infant when she hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up on shore 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 dead man and the infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim the child as their own and name her Lucy, but a rift begins to grow between them. When Lucy is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world…and one of them is desperate to find her lost baby.

M.L. Stedman’s extraordinarily compelling characters, still trying to make sense of life in the wake of so much death in the war, are imperfect people seeking to find their north star in a world of incomprehensible complexity.

©2012 Grasshill Communications. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans is a beautiful novel about isolation and courage in the face of enormous loss. It gets into your heart stealthily, until you stop hoping the characters will make different choices and find you can only watch, transfixed, as every conceivable choice becomes an impossible one. I couldn’t look away from the page and then I couldn’t see it, through tears. It’s a stunning debut.” (Maile Meloy, author of Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It)

A bit of a let down

Would you try another book from M. L. Stedman and/or Noah Taylor?

I might give Stedman another chance, but I am not interested in hearing Noah Taylor again. During the book I kept wondering when he was going to wake up and tell a story. I think there was a story in this book. Noah read as if he were reciting the Periodic Table. Perhaps that is the way men talked after the war, or perhaps Noah was trying to tell us just how wounded Tom is.

What did you like best about this story?

What I liked best about this story was the end. It did seem right that Lucy Grace wanted to find these people and have a relationship.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Noah Taylor?

Steve Martin, forget about trying to duplicate the Aussie accent.

Could you see The Light Between Oceans being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

I don't see this book as a movie. The characters were too flat. I'm trying to decide if it was the writing or the way it was read.

Any additional comments?

I just finished The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I was very impressed with her writing style and the way she described events, people and feelings. This book was a let down from that.

Narration

The story was great. It was difficult to hear or understand the narrator while listening to the audio version of this book. At times his voice was dull, too quiet (even with the volume up) and he tended to mumble at times.

A tearjerker

I enjoyed the story although sad. It made me appreciate motherhood , a gift squandered by too many. I had difficulty with the accent at times, that was the only drawback.

Beautiful sadness

This was a beautifully written story that captivated love and loss, hard ache and joy, and deep deep connection of a parent to a child. It was extremely well written, visually stunning, and the characters very well-developed. However, it was extremely difficult to understand at times. The near raider dropped the end of every sentence and, with the accent, the story had to be rewound over and over to get the words. There were some I never could understand. All in all, I definitely recommendthis read.

Loved!

In the new era of fantasy after fantasy it was good to read a book full of real human everyday emotions. You could put yourself in every characters shoes & understand everyone's point of view. I did also enjoy the narration because that is exactly how Tom comes across to in the book: soft spoken man always trying to keep himself steady.

Easy Read

Loved the secondary characters and time lapses. Good transitions from age, eras. Dis not care for “her” in the beginning bit better understood as time went by.

Great book! Bad narrator.

This book pulls at your heart strings. It really makes you consider how you would act in different circumstances of life. And gives a whole new perspective on forgiveness and true love.

Sadly, the narrator does a very poor job. He mumbles and runs words together, making it so you have to go back a few times to catch what he said. He sighs out the sentences too as if he is bored with reading the book. I know I heard him yawn through reading at one point. The narrator almost made me not finish listening, but the book is so good that you have to finish it. I hope they redo this audiobook and get a new narrator.

Could not turn this book off

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, narrator was great. Plot was fabulous. Some things I knew were coming but the ending was unexpected and so touching.

What about Noah Taylor’s performance did you like?

Very good. Not too overdramatic so I could put my own emotions in.

Disappointing

The story line of this book was a disappointment. I am OK without a happy ending, but this book left me without a sense of satisfaction, interesting reflections, life lessons learned, or any character that I was "glad to have gotten to know".

The narration was well done, however, the narrator's voice fell off at the end of sentences and during dialogue. Thus, I had to play it at a higher volume. I needed to use earbuds while doing housework, rather than playing it over speakers, for the same reason.

Very well written

Would you consider the audio edition of The Light Between Oceans to be better than the print version?

Yes, I like the accents

What did you like best about this story?

It has a poetry quality to the story that really pulls you in