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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'This is a story of right and wrong, and how sometimes they look the same ...
'1926. Tom Sherbourne is a young lighthouse keeper on a remote island off Western Australia. The only inhabitants of Janus Rock, he and his wife Isabel live a quiet life, cocooned from the rest of the world.
'One April morning a boat washes ashore carrying a dead man and a crying infant - and the path of the couple's lives hits an unthinkable crossroads.
'Only years later do they discover the devastating consequences of the decision they made that day - as the baby's real story unfolds...' (From the publisher's website.)
Adaptations
-
form
y
The Light between Oceans
( dir. Derek Cianfrance
)
United States of America (USA)
New Zealand
:
Heyday Films
LBO Productions
DreamWorks SKG
,
2016
9322518
2016
single work
film/TV
historical fiction
A lighthouse keeper and his wife find and adopt a baby girl who is washed up on their isolated island in a lifeboat. But not all the girl's family are gone, and their decision will have ramifications.
Notes
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Dedication: In memory of my parents
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Sound recording. (German)
- Braille.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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Heading South : An Embodied Literary History of the Cape to Cape Track and the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Region of South-west Australia
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 8 no. 1 2017; (p. 44-58)'Based on the author’s end-to-end walk of the Cape to Cape Track (C2C), this article presents a literary history of the Leeuwin-Naturaliste region traversed by the trail. The C2C is a continuous, 135-kilometre coastal pedestrian path from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin south of Perth in the south-west corner of Western Australia. A relatively short route by long-distance trekking standards, the C2C reverberates with literary narratives, incidents and encounters. In 1831, explorers John Dewar and Andrew Smith walked northbound from Augusta to the Swan River, approximately following the modern-day orientation of the track. Known for tempestuous weather, Cape Leeuwin—the southern terminus of the C2C, near Augusta, where the Indian and Southern Oceans converge—was the model for “Lewin’s Land” referenced in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and later alluded to in D.H. Lawrence and Mollie Skinner’s The Boy in the Bush (1924). Drawing from theories of emplacement (de Certeau; Edensor; Gros; Ingold; Ingold and Vergunst; Merleau-Ponty; Michael; Solnit), this article describes walking as a medium for understanding the imbrications between bodies, landscapes, journeys, histories and stories.' (Publication abstract)
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[Review Essay] The Light Between the Oceans
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 42) ABR : Arts 2016; 'If you read a novel prior to seeing the film derived from it, you know what to expect by way of major plot manoeuvers. Attention is then apt to focus on how the film maker has responded to the original, and the what can then often be seriously be challenged. As one who believes fidelity to be ideal for relationships, I favour playing around with adaptions.' (Introduction) -
Indie Judges Shine Light on Year's Best Books
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 26 March 2013; (p. 15) -
Aussie Authors Vie for Something on Mantel
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 14 March 2013; (p. 5) -
Dorothy Green Memorial Lecture : Archipelagic Space and the Uncertain Future of National Literatures
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 13 no. 2 2013;'This essay joins in the discussion about the future of national literatures in the shifting formations of globalisation. Specifically, I want to interrogate what we mean by the future when we speak of literature and, specifically, of Australian or New Zealand literature.
The essay proposes a literary cartography that overlays the alienation of this ‘no world’ with the ‘no-place’ of island utopias as they are mobilised in archipelagic chains or threads. This alternative model of spatial relationality and dynamism differs from conventional global traffic. It is a cartography derived from islands: from their history, fictions, and their theorists. This project is at least partly utopian in a strictly generic sense; that is, in its implication in the reading practices and politics of utopian texts.' (Author's abstract)
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[Review] The Light between Oceans
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , February/March vol. 91 no. 7 2012; (p. 30)
— Review of The Light between Oceans 2012 single work novel -
[Review] The Light between Oceans
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 340 2012; (p. 67)
— Review of The Light between Oceans 2012 single work novel -
Looking for the First Light
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 31 March-1 April 2012; (p. 23)
— Review of The Light between Oceans 2012 single work novel ; Floundering 2012 single work novel -
High Hopes on the Rocks
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 7 April 2012; (p. 21)
— Review of The Light between Oceans 2012 single work novel -
Baby a Beacon of Distress
2012
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 6-8 April 2012; (p. 34)
— Review of The Light between Oceans 2012 single work novel -
Beacon of Promise
2012
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 24 March 2012; (p. 28-29) The Sydney Morning Herald , 24-25 March 2012; (p. 30-31) -
Undercover
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 May 2012; (p. 31) A column canvassing current literary news including a report on worldwide sales of M. L. Stedman's The Light between Oceans. Susan Wyndham also notes the trend towards publishing 'shorts', highlighting new series by Allen & Unwin and Penguin. -
TBR : Inside the List
2012
single work
column
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 19 August 2012; (p. 22) -
Aussie Authors Vie for Something on Mantel
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 14 March 2013; (p. 5) -
Indie Judges Shine Light on Year's Best Books
2013
single work
column
— Appears in: The Australian , 26 March 2013; (p. 15)
Awards
- 2014 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2013 winner Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Newcomer of the Year for The Light Between Oceans
- 2013 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Book of the Year
- 2013 winner Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Literary Fiction Book of the Year
- 2013 winner Indie Awards — Book of the Year
- Southwest Western Australia, Western Australia,
- Island,
- 1920s
- 1930s