The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans is Australian writer M.L. Stedman’s debut novel, published in 2012 by Random House Australia. Categorized as historical fiction, the novel won various accolades, such as the Indie Book Awards Book of the Year in 2013. A film adaptation of The Light Between Oceans was released four years after the novel’s publication in 2016.

All citations in this guide are based on the 2012 Scribner edition, accessed via Scribd.com.

Plot Summary

In 1918, after returning from the First World War, war hero Tom Sherbourne accepts a position as a lighthouse keeper on the remote island of Janus Rock, a hundred miles off the coast of Australia. For Tom, who carries emotional scars from the war, Janus Rock is a refuge, and he takes comfort in the simple and straightforward rules of “the Lights.”

During his infrequent shore leaves to Point Partageuse, Tom falls in love with Isabel Graysmark, a bold, fearless girl guided only by her heart. Their marriage gives him hope for happiness after the war. Isabel adjusts to life on Janus, but after three miscarriages, she is depressed and lonely.

When a dinghy carrying a dead man and a crying infant washes up on the shore, Isabel, desperate for a child, convinces Tom not to report the appearance of the boat. She wants to keep the child as their own. Against his better judgment, Tom acknowledges his wife’s pain and acquiesces. They name her Lucy, and they raise the child, allowing the townspeople in Partageuse to believe Lucy is their own baby. Tom is frequently reminded of the moral ambiguity of their choice, and he is haunted by his fear that they have done the wrong thing. Isabel convinces herself that they have acted in Lucy’s best interest, saving her life and saving her from a difficult experience in an orphanage.

When Lucy is two, however, the couple learns that the child’s mother, Hannah Roennfeldt, is alive and living in Partageuse. She is haunted by the disappearance of her husband, Frank, and their infant daughter, Grace. Before his death, Frank had often been mistaken for a German and was therefore the victim of strong anti-German sentiment after the war. Shortly after Grace’s birth, he was attacked by a drunken mob that threatened to take his daughter. He fled with Grace to the safety of a dinghy and paddled away from shore to wait for the crowd to disperse. While he paddled, he suffered a fatal heart attack, and the dinghy drifted away to Janus Rock.

When this story emerges, Tom and Isabel face a choice—give Lucy back to her rightful mother, or continue with the deception. Isabel, desperate to keep her only child, argues that it is best for Lucy to stay with them. Tom’s conscience, however, leads him to contact Hannah anonymously in order to let her know that her child is alive and loved.

Two more years pass, and Lucy is four. On a visit to Partageuse to celebrate the Janus Rock lighthouse’s fortieth anniversary, Tom and Isabel come face to face with Hannah Roennfeldt. After this encounter with Lucy’s rightful mother, the couple argue about whether to keep Lucy or to give her up to her mother. Tom secretly sends Hannah a silver rattle that they had found in the dinghy as proof of the child’s existence, hoping that the knowledge will comfort her. Bluey, one of the two men who bring supplies out to Janus every three months on the store boat, thinks he recognizes the rattle. Uncertainly, Bluey tells the police of his suspicions, and Tom is arrested. Lucy is ripped away from the couple and returned to Hannah, and Isabel is beside herself with grief.

Despite his moral struggle over the years, Tom maintains a deep love for his wife and compassion for her losses. To protect her, Tom claims it was his idea alone to keep the baby. Quickly, the question arises of whether Frank Roennfeldt was already dead, or if Tom murdered him. Instead of prison, Tom could face the death penalty. Isabel, enraged by Tom’s betrayal, must decide whether to implicate him.

Hannah struggles to establish a relationship with her daughter, who is traumatized after being taken from the only family she has known. Lucy resists Hannah’s attempts to mother her at every turn, and she refuses to answer to the name of Grace, which her parents had given her at her birth. Hannah’s sister, Gwen, asks whether it is in Grace’s best interest to stay with Hannah. After Grace runs away in an attempt to find Isabel and Tom, Hannah reluctantly agrees. She tells Isabel she can keep the child, as long as she swears that Tom was the only one to blame.

Ultimately, however, Isabel cannot bring herself to implicate Tom, even though it means losing Lucy for good. Hannah, in honor of her husband Frank’s ability to forgive, urges clemency, and Tom serves only three months in prison. Isabel struggles with her loss, while Tom is relieved to be free of the moral burden he has carried for so long. Hannah moves away from Partageuse with her child, now called Lucy-Grace, to start afresh. Two decades later, days after Isabel passes away, Lucy-Grace appears at Tom’s door with her own child, to share memories of her time with the couple on Janus. This visit brings Tom peace, and the novel ends optimistically as Tom reflects on his life and all he has learned from his experiences.