This month, I read The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. The story follows Tom and Isabel Sherbourne, an Australian couple living on the island of Janus Rock. Tom is a WWI veteran, and after seeing the horrors of war, he has now taken up the job of lighthouse keeper on Janus, where only the two of them reside. The couple has suffered through three miscarriages, each one destroying Isabel more. One day, a boat washes ashore with a dead man and a baby inside. While Tom wants to write back to the mainland letting them know of the deceased man and the baby, Isabel begs him to keep the baby and raise her as their own. After being deprived of having children, Tom does not have the heart to say no to her.
As they raise their daughter, whom they have named Lucy, Isabel is assured that the world has given them a miracle after their miscarriages. While Tom finds it impossible not to love Lucy, his conscience eats away at him every day, knowing that their actions have possibly torn a family apart. Finally, on a trip back to the mainland, their secret catches up with them when they meet Lucy’s surviving mother.
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