In The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, we have a couple who operate a lighthouse in remote Australia. Isabel keeps having late-pregnancy miscarriages and when a boat washes up by the lighthouse with a dead man and a living baby, they raise the baby as their own. The consequences of this decision will haunt more lives than just their own.
I mean, this one is tough because everyone makes such terrible decisions. I mean, just everybody. But once you make a terrible decision, can it be undone? Ugh. Such an ethical quagmire.
The writing was lovely. But are you ready for this super sad morality mess?
3.5/5 stars
Lines of note:
Tom isn’t one of the men whose legs trailed by a hank of sinews, or whose guts cascaded from their casing like slithering eels. Nor were his lungs turned to glue or his brains to stodge by the gas. But he’s scarred all the same, having to live in the same skin as the man who did the things that needed to be done back then. (location 151)
Uff-da.
The old clock on the kitchen wall still clicked its minutes with fussy punctuality. A life had come and gone and nature had not paused a second for it. The machine of time and space grinds on, and people are fed through it like grist through the mill. (location 1198)
Brutal.
...she wondered whether she was still technically a sister, now that her adored brothers had died. (location 1635)
SO BRUTAL.
Things I looked up:
stoush (location 275) - an informal Australian and New Zealand term that means a fight, brawl, or verbal argument
jarrah (location 295) - a plant in the myrtle family found in the south-west of Western Australia
Lux flakes (location 637) - a classic, gentle washing product originally created by Lever Brothers to clean delicate fabrics like wool and silk
banjine (location 1471) - a slender shrub with large, rather hairy yellow inflorescences - What are inflorescences? I think you have to be a biologist to find out.
trevally (location 1471) - a diverse group of powerful, fast-swimming marine fish belonging to the jack family
dugite (location 1935) - a species of highly venomous, potentially lethal snake endemic to Western Australia
Wisden (location 2206) - Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, or simply Wisden, colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. This feels mean and a bit niche for readers outside of the UK!
stephanotis (location 2711) - commonly known as Madagascar jasmine or the Hawaiian wedding flower, is an evergreen, vining plant prized for its intensely fragrant, waxy, pure white tubular blooms and glossy green
Hat mentions (why hats?):
hat and coat (location 341)
take your hats (location 346)
brand-new slouch hats (location 1025)
replaced his hat (location 1894)
keep it under your hat (location 1896)
low-brimmed felt hat (location 2035)
swipe Frank’s hat (location 2090)
“Keep it under your hat, all this, could you, mate?” (location 2266)
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Who's in for a sad book like this? Who's out? Who feels like I should know more about the flora and fauna of Western Australia?
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