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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Wednesday 6th November, 2013 - The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman (chosen by He)











  • Australian 
  • story begins in the early 1920's
  • 3 ABIA awards - Best Newcomer, Best Literary Novel, Book of the Year
  • 2 Indie awards - Best Debut, Book of the Year (and more)
  • emotionally complex tale - pulls at your heart
  • Highly recommended by the group
  • (Audio book read by Noah Taylor) 


What we discussed:
  • The author - background - born and raised in Western Australia, now lives in London
  • The title of the book - what/why the "light" between the oceans?
  • The different covers of the book -  the use of the scorpion on one cover -  the man in the lighthouse on another
  • The setting - isolation - strong sense of place
  • What would it be like to live in a lighthouse - to bring up a family there?
  • The characters - did we like them - who held our sympathy - our attitude towards various characters - did it change as the story progressed 
  • The impact of the decision made by Isabel and Tom - how did this affect everyone else involved? ( We discussed how this impacted Tom, Isabel, Isabel's parents, Hannah, Gwen, Septimus, Ralph and Bluey)
  • Isabel's finaly admission - Was it expected?
  • The significance of the "silver rattle" 
  • The conclusion  
  • Lighthouses - We looked at two books on lighthouses of the world. The pictures were fascinating. We also talked about the famous Jean Guichard Lighthouse Photo taken in 1989 of the La Jument Lighthouse. (The La Jument Lighthouse story can be seen here ) 


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