The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman

I picked up The Light Between The Oceans on a friend's recommendation. I put it off because I heard it was sad. I rarely like sad books but I finally decided to read it. It was sad but still very good.

Tom and Isabel live on a tiny island off of Australia. Tom is the lighthouse keeper. Isabel and Tom want to have kids but Isabel keeps having miscarriages. One day, a dinghy lands on the beach with a dead man and a howling baby. Tom and Isabel keep the child and raise her as their own. Life on the island is easy with just the three of them. But when they return to the mainland, their secrets are harder to keep.

The Light Between the Oceans would make an excellent book club book. So much to talk about.  What would you do for your own happiness? Your partner's? If your happiness was at the extreme sacrifice of another, would you still be happy? The Light Between The Oceans was full of those moral dilemmas. I've never had kids so I can't imagine losing babies to miscarriage and the pain Isabel felt. But I still enjoyed the story. Stedman does an excellent job of portraying the characters and making you feel what they feel. I would read another book by Stedman.

Overall, a heart wrenching story told very well. I teared up at the end which is incredibly rare for me. Others who shared their thoughts on The Light Between the Oceans: Page Flutter, Chopin and My Saucepan, and The Literary Sofa.