This book is currently on the NYT bestseller list; I read it for a book group.
Stedman is an Australian who's lived in Britain for some years (I honestly can't remember how many); this is her debut novel and there was a bidding war among British publishers for it.
I see this book as Anna Karenina meets the two entrepreneurs of Solomon. I have not read Anna Karenina for many years, but I recall it as an psychological exploration and explanation of how a married woman could come to break her marriage vows by someone who viewed that as clearly wrong and almost inexplicable. This novel also examines how a great crime came to be committed by people who were otherwise normal and law-abiding (albeit living under great stress). It's also a portrait of loss, as there are many losses and bereavements in the novel.
A WWI vet, deeply troubled by his wartime experience as well as the breakdown of his parents' marriage, welcomes a posting to man the lighthouse at Janus Rock, a several hour boatride from the nearest southwestern Australia town.
The two oceans referred to are the Indian Ocean, along Australia's western shore, and the Southern Ocean, the body of water between Australia and Antarctica. The place where the two oceans meet at the southwest corner of Australia is a place of strong, treacherous currents.
In town, before his posting, the vet meets a lively and attractive young woman. Having lost both her brothers to the war, she not only is immediately attracted to the lighthouse keeper but feels that her life has shown her the importance of not wasting any time.
She pursues him, they marry, and she goes to live with him on Janus Rock. After several painful miscarriages, a baby in a boat washes ashore and the wife insists that she and her husband keep the child and pass it off as their own rather than report the event to the authorities, as is customary and required.
With grave misgivings, her husband, who not only loves her but credits her with saving him after the emotional numbness he felt after the war, agrees. As the years pass, guilt gnaws at him.
The child's mother leaves in the same town from which the lighthouse receives its supplies, and it's perhaps obvious that it's just a matter of time until the lighthouse keeper meets the mother of his adopted child and is confronted with her loss and suffering.
This book is beautifully written. I disliked that the author sometimes told the reader something that I hope could be inferred, such as that it was easy, in the isolation of life at the lightouse, to imagine that there would no harm caused by keeping the baby.
In the opening of the novel, the author describes the founding of the town near Janus Rock, as if that town's history, too, were part of the story of this baby and all the people who loved her.
Stedman is an Australian who's lived in Britain for some years (I honestly can't remember how many); this is her debut novel and there was a bidding war among British publishers for it.
I see this book as Anna Karenina meets the two entrepreneurs of Solomon. I have not read Anna Karenina for many years, but I recall it as an psychological exploration and explanation of how a married woman could come to break her marriage vows by someone who viewed that as clearly wrong and almost inexplicable. This novel also examines how a great crime came to be committed by people who were otherwise normal and law-abiding (albeit living under great stress). It's also a portrait of loss, as there are many losses and bereavements in the novel.
A WWI vet, deeply troubled by his wartime experience as well as the breakdown of his parents' marriage, welcomes a posting to man the lighthouse at Janus Rock, a several hour boatride from the nearest southwestern Australia town.
The two oceans referred to are the Indian Ocean, along Australia's western shore, and the Southern Ocean, the body of water between Australia and Antarctica. The place where the two oceans meet at the southwest corner of Australia is a place of strong, treacherous currents.
In town, before his posting, the vet meets a lively and attractive young woman. Having lost both her brothers to the war, she not only is immediately attracted to the lighthouse keeper but feels that her life has shown her the importance of not wasting any time.
She pursues him, they marry, and she goes to live with him on Janus Rock. After several painful miscarriages, a baby in a boat washes ashore and the wife insists that she and her husband keep the child and pass it off as their own rather than report the event to the authorities, as is customary and required.
With grave misgivings, her husband, who not only loves her but credits her with saving him after the emotional numbness he felt after the war, agrees. As the years pass, guilt gnaws at him.
The child's mother leaves in the same town from which the lighthouse receives its supplies, and it's perhaps obvious that it's just a matter of time until the lighthouse keeper meets the mother of his adopted child and is confronted with her loss and suffering.
This book is beautifully written. I disliked that the author sometimes told the reader something that I hope could be inferred, such as that it was easy, in the isolation of life at the lightouse, to imagine that there would no harm caused by keeping the baby.
In the opening of the novel, the author describes the founding of the town near Janus Rock, as if that town's history, too, were part of the story of this baby and all the people who loved her.
Thanks for stopping by Passage.Paradis and following it! (En plus! Do you speak French?) Anyway, I'm v. flattered that you include P.P. among your more "book"ish pursuits. My own relationship with books is both v. passionate and v. fraught. Wish I could keep up with your reading schedule!
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