After 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.

To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. 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. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

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Product details

Listening Length	10 hours and 21 minutes
Author	M L Stedman
Narrator	Noah Taylor
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	25 November 2014
Publisher	Audible Studios
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00PV3F14Q
Best Sellers Rank	8,741 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 21 in Social Services & Welfare (Books) 285 in Politics & Government (Audible Books & Originals) 397 in Literary Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

5 star		64%
4 star		26%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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A Story That Will Stay With Me A Very Long Time

Reviewed in Australia on 18 September 2018

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Wow. I was really late to the party with this one, like I'm pretty much late to everything.
I absolutely devoured this story in 2 nights, staying up so late last night I couldn't get to sleep for thinking about the book, so I should have just sat on the couch and finished the last 10%.
I don't know why, but for some reason I was convinced that in this story the little girl goes blind. I kept waiting for her to be blinded by the light in the lighthouse - which is what I felt was going to happen. When she's digging potatoes in the garden with her mamma and sand gets in her eyes, I thought that was the moment! There must be some virus in the sand! Any time she rubbed her eyes because she was tired... I was sure it was the start of this new affliction. (Isn't it funny what preconceptions get in your head?)
And of course, nothing like that happens so relax everybody. Nobody goes blind!!
Once I realised there was quite enough drama without anyone going blind... all was okay.
Every motivation for every character felt perfect in this story. They were all flawed. Their actions were all understandable. I ended up angriest at the people of the town and at Frank's storyline, for all the heartache that set in motion for Hannah.
The writing style felt literary to me, but very approachable, and some of the phrasing is just beautiful.
What worked even more for me is that the south west of Western Australia and the karri forests and the history of timber milling in this area, is home for me. Augusta (Point Parteguese) is just down the road, and so the descriptions of the place where 'two oceans meet' was extremely vivid and pertinent for me.
One other weird thing for me with this book: I was so sure the author was a man, and I have since found she's a woman. I intend to read some of her interviews about this book because I'd love to know how she set about researching lighthouse-keeping rules and regulations from the period. The research of the attitudes and customs for the time felt spot-on to me.
My mother loved this book and talked about it and I've had it on kindle for quite some time. I'm really glad I've read it. I feel the story will stay with me a very long time.

3 people found this helpful

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ian Relaxbyread

Great Aussie Yarn

Reviewed in Australia on 10 January 2021

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The story line and the strikingly memorable characters make this a must read for anyone interested in background stories of post WW1, the decisions made by a young couple desperate for children and the subsequent implications of their decisions made under enormous stress are a recipe for an unforgettable story, all which is set in the South West of Western Australia. A real page turner, well written.

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I will read this book again, maybe many times.

Reviewed in Australia on 9 December 2016

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It's a long time since I've read a book with such depth. Most of the time it's impossible to put down, yet at other times one needs to take a break and come up for air.
All the way through there was the threat of heartbreak and disaster, which I kept praying wouldn't happen.
Life on Janus Island working with the lighthouse was all so visual I felt I was returning to familiar surroundings.
Not a book to take lightly and many of us will recognise the depths to which it leads us.

One person found this helpful

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Good, but could have been excellent.

Reviewed in Australia on 30 March 2016

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I was very keen to read this book, especially having read so many positive reviews from professional reviewers and readers alike. Unfortunately I feel the book was cut short could have easily gone for a further 100-200 pages, and as such I didn’t feel the story developed as comprehensively and thoroughly as it could have. I was disappointed with the rushed ending - so many avenues that the author could have explored and developed.
Overall, 3 stars.

2 people found this helpful

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GraceLee Patrick

The intrigues of the human heart and a story of isolation - what could possibly go wrong?

Reviewed in Australia on 24 January 2015

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I had never before thought of what life would be like for a lighthouse keeper and his family. Intermingled with a passionate story about love, intrigue and deception is this experience of living the life of isolation in 'The Light Between Oceans'.

I enjoyed the book, it's a good light read and is a perfect accompaniment on holidays, particularly near the beach. It is poignant and soul searching and many times I wondered what I would have done in that situation. The recipe for disaster was evident from page one, and the writing and the intrigue were skillfully worked through.

Thank you for many hours of reading pleasure.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

All for love

Reviewed in Australia on 10 July 2018

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Beautifully written - gentle and easy yo read. Characters well developed and real - they became friends and were thought of often when doing other chores throughout the day. An emotional story with the reader understanding and seeing the view points of all characters.A great read.

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Norna

Excellent book with multilayered ethical dilemmas .

Reviewed in Australia on 4 February 2016

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Very interesting book presenting multiple ethical dilemmas . The book opens with the return of a highly decorated World War One soldier who just seeks solitude . He does not feel himself a hero and the isolation of the light house with its routines helps him to recover . He falls in love with a young local girl who returns to the rock with him and so the stage is set . Very well written . I couldn't put it down .

2 people found this helpful

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Svend Stuebe

Beautiful writing

Reviewed in Australia on 27 July 2018

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Such a great and compelling story enfolded by the exquisite art of truly beautiful expression. Couldn’t put it down. Only two slight moments where this storyteller fell in a not-quite-enough-research hole; rasps are not used on metal (although the word is probably more satisfying to a wordsmith than ‘files’), and finches ARE native to Western Australia! Other than that, a book I’ll never forget.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. John Frank Herbert

The Light Upon YOUR Emotions!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2016

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The film was just out at my local but I didn't want to spoil my reading
of the book, so I gave the film a miss.
I've just put the book down in a flood of tears as I turned into the last
few pages.
Tears for goodness sake!

Oh but such emotion, such a pulling in one direction, and then another;
you can feel for all sides, the crushing pain and emptiness of irretrievable
loss.

A child lost - a child found. A simple equation that will strip your thought
waves, and dare you to choose which way you're going to lean, and as
it all comes to the inevitable gut-wrenching finale, you can feel the emotion
of it all as it suddenly bites.

And those final pages?
If you're teetering on the edge by this point, if those tear ducts are weighing
it all up, these final pages will simply open up the floodgates.

And the story?
Just about a silly old Lighthouse in the middle of nowhere, and crashing waves,
and a boat that washes up ashore, with a baby girl aboard.

And if you believe it's all as simple as that......
Think again!

34 people found this helpful

Bookliterati

Beautiful but haunting tale.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2016

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Tom and Isabel live a happy but solitary life on Janus Island where Tom is the lighthouse keeper. The only blight on their existence is Isabel's desperation for a baby. When one morning a boat washes up on the shore with a dead man but a living baby Isabel and Tom make a decision that will have consequences not only for them but for Isabel's family in Partaguese and Hannah, the baby's real mother.
This is a novel of decisions, consequences and human nature. It is an emotional tale of love, loss and the blurred lines between right and wrong.
The writing is very atmospheric, and the characters well rounded. There is a lot of attention to detail in the authors description of both people and places. I really like thee historical detail of the lighthouses and how they were run in the early twentieth century. The character really do attract the reader's empathy to the situation they find themselves in. I found it made me think what I would do in their situation especially as I was torn between the two sides of the story. It is an innovative and intelligent storyline full of emotion that will stay with you long after you finish the book.

25 people found this helpful

S. Slater

Serenely beautiful story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2017

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A simple idyll; boy meets girl, they marry and live on a remote Australian lighthouse island where the two are bonnily happy but not for 'ever after'. Just as the lighthouse lamp continues to revolve, stealing its beam of glorious light, Tom and Isabel's happiness is also swept swiftly and brutally away. Their lives implode around three miscarriages/stillbirths and the misery that entails for their present and their future loss of family. Howeve just as day follows night, a beam of light sweeps into their lives with the unexpected and totally inexplicable arrival of a rowing boat with a dead body and a young baby in it. The ensuing dilemma and actions are all driven by love but with oscillating consequences of lightness and dark. I can't tell you any more without ruining the plot but I loved this book, it demanded late night page turning and whilst the darkest moments of plot meant I finished it through a veil of tears, there with still a beam of light returning to lift your soul, right at the bitter end. Go buy it.

14 people found this helpful

Michelle

Recommended

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 August 2018

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This is such a hard book to review as each chapter left me conflicted, each sentance changed my thoughts, my idea of right and wrong and even after the final word I'm at a loss to where I stand morally on this. Welcome to the fictional Janus Island off the western coast of Australia where the lighthouse beams each night providing a clear passage for sailors, the light is the only clear part of this book. This would make a great book club book as there's a ton of discussion points. Recommended and I would definitely now watch the film.

5 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Couldn't be any less than 5 stars!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 October 2020

Verified Purchase

Watched the movie years ago,which moved me deeply as someone who has been a deeply depressed mother.
The book is somehow more grief stricken! With so many ways to grieve, and be healed by different ways of loving. Not just the love between man and wife, but that between mother and baby, then mother and child, because it does change and develop with the child's growth, father and baby, then child, too is slightly different again, then the understanding between sisters,... it goes on.
This book has real depth if you open your heart to it, but beware! It will break it into tiny pieces only to heal it again anew.
Be forgiving it's motives are pure.

One person found this helpful

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