THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS by M.L. Steadman

A baby is washed up on a remote island, inhabited only by the war damaged lighthouse keeper Tom and his wife Isabel. Two miscarriages and a still born baby have deeply damaged Isabel, and the appearance of a tiny baby is a gift from God. The dead man in the boat is buried by the increasingly uneasy Tom, who also makes the fatal mistake of not entering the arrivals in the log book, or letting the authorities half a day's boat ride know what has happened. The pleas and joy of his wife override what his head is telling him he should do. Naturally it all comes undone when the little family makes one of its infrequent journeys to the mainland, and the real mother appears.

Reading this book reminded me of the biblical story of King Solomon, renowned for his wisdom and fairness. Two women come to him, both claiming to be the mother of a child. Solomon's decision is to cut the baby in two, his theory being that the real mother, or the one most deserving of the child would be the one to renounce her claim and thus save the child's life.

There is a certain point in this novel where that particular decision is made by one woman, and I was holding my breath as to what the outcome would be. As there were still quite a few pages to go I knew it was not going to go according to King Solomon's decree. The writing is so good, the character development so beautifully done, that the reader feels sympathy and compassion for all the people in this story, despite the mistakes many of them make.  We don't know the reasons for the beaching of the boat on the island until well over half way through the novel, and the over arching sadness of this one event really does colour in its many shades of grey the actions and behaviours of those left behind. In the middle of it all is a little girl, only four, who is told she has two mummies, but only wants one. This will tug at your heart as you too wrestle with what is the right thing to do, what would you do in a similar circumstance. It is desperately sad, which puts me off wanting to watch the film, but when friends say it is very true to the book, then maybe I will sit down with a pack of tissues. No wine - will only make it worse.