I think today more than ever we can fall into “sound-bite judgment,” reaching conclusions on the basis of quite a cursory consideration of an issue. Was this a conscious choice and if so, was it difficult to do? Well, you do a wonderful job of refusing to pass judgment on your characters. Do you think there was a “right” decision for Tom and Isabel?Īha! It’s up to each reader to come up with their own answer to this one.įair enough. The major moral question of keeping a child that isn’t yours is posed early in the book. I got to know Tom and Isabel as I wrote them, and was drawn into their seemingly insoluble dilemma, and their struggle to stay true to their love for each other as well as to their own deepest drives. Everything that happens in the book stems from this initiating image-a bit like the idea of ‘Big Bang’-an initial point that seems tiny turns out to be incredibly dense, and just expanded outward further and further. Before long, a boat washed up on the beach, and in it I could see a dead man, and then a crying baby.
For this story, it was a lighthouse, then a woman and a man. I write fairly instinctively, just seeing what comes up when I sit down at the page. Did anything specific inspire you to write The Light Between Oceans? We caught up with Stedman (herself born and raised in Western Australia) for a discussion of right and wrong, moral ambiguity and an author’s responsibility to her characters.
Stedman’s stunning debut novel, The Light Between Oceans. The repercussions of this decision shape M.L. In the wake of World War I, on a remote island off the coast of Australia, lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel make a life-altering choice: to keep and raise a foundling child who is not theirs.