After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
Now a major motion picture starring Michael Fassbender and real-life love Alicia Vikander, this is one story that you will not be able to get through without some Kleenex and Godiva—in all the right ways! If you enjoyed The Light Between Oceans, you will love these indie guilty pleasures:
Secrets of Men in a Lifeboat by Todd R. Baker
Luke Morrow, a financially struggling young single parent to an 8-year-old boy, comes to believe that he has nothing, until by a magical twist of fate, his improbable internet technology start-up turns him into a Silicon Valley billionaire star.
Secrets of Men in a Lifeboat begins with Luke’s harrowing romantic sojourn on the moneyed Westside of Los Angeles. Just when Luke can’t bear life’s pain anymore, he is remade—into a rich but brutal man. As Luke catapults through realms of fame and fortune, he is granted one last chance to seek redemption in a final showdown between honor and his own devastating power.
Daddy Dearest by Paul Southern
An estranged father’s weekend with his beloved five-year-old daughter turns into a nightmare when she gets into the elevator of a city center tower block and vanishes without a trace.
The incident sets off a race against time, and a nationwide manhunt, to find her. As the police investigation closes in, suspicion falls on those closest to her – with devastating consequences.
If you are prone to imagining the unthinkable when you see a door close between you and your child, this one is a heart-wrencher. There is something downright eerie about the way the narrator describes the window of thirty seconds in which his daughter disappears—which of course makes for an even better tale. Daddy Dearest is a terrifying story of love, obsession and psychological meltdown.
An Order of Coffee and Tears by Brian Spangler
Angela’s Diner has the reputation of a safe haven, where patrons find a moment of peace as they linger over “coffee and tears”.
Gabriella Santiago used to be a typical teenager who enjoyed the usual teenage things. That is until a single day ended who she was and within hours she ran from home, never to look back. Only when Gabby is cold, hungry and at her lowest, does she find Angela’s Diner.
Gabby embraces her new life and the family she has found in the midst of strangers and obscurity. Acceptance is what she craves, but before long, Gabby realizes she’s not the only one in the diner with something to hide. Her new family has a secret too, and some secrets refuse to stay buried.
Weedmonkey by Lisa V. Proulx
This harrowing true story, similar in tone to Jeanette Walls’ The Glass Castle, tells the sad tale of Virgie Hopkins, who grew up during the Depression in coal mining camps throughout Appalachia, was subjected to child molestation, homelessness, starvation and ridicule for being the daughter of the town whore.
Virgie grows up hating her mother, who was taken away when she was nine years old, resulting in Virgie entering foster care, where she was subsequently starved and abused. At sixteen, Virgie makes the decision to leave Kentucky after discovering her mother was having an affair with the young boy Virgie loved.
Filled with hatred, resentment and shame, it is not until her mother’s funeral does Virgie learn the truth.
The Lighthouse by Amy Cross
While her friends head off to start new lives in London after university, Penny has a different idea. She’s going to go and take a job at a remote lighthouse for a year, helping to keep the place running while she saves money. When she arrives at Culthorpe lighthouse, however, she quickly realizes that something is very wrong.
Something is hiding nearby the lighthouse, something that only makes its presence felt at night. Meanwhile, Penny is concerned about one of her co-workers, a man whose memory seems to be almost non-existent. What is the dark secret of Culthorpe lighthouse? Is Penny really crazy, or has she been visited by a ghost since she was a child? And who or what is hidden beneath the hatch in the generator room?
The drama, the high energy, the mystery of it all—this is what a good indie read is all about!
If you loved Light Between Oceans and can’t wait to see the film, jump on in with your wellies on. Be forewarned, intense emotion and lots of twists lie ahead. Hold fast to those oars mateys!