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NC Copy of 2024 TLBO - Interpretative Response

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Close Analysis - Character and Passage 2024

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The Light Between Oceans is a heart-wrenching and emotionally charged novel written by M.L. Stedman. Set in the early 20th century, the book takes readers on an unforgettable journey through love, loss, and the complexities of human morality. The story is set on Janus Rock, a remote and isolated island off the coast of Western Australia. The protagonist, Tom Sherbourne, is a war veteran who takes up the position of lighthouse keeper on the island. Seeking solace and solitude after the horrors of the Great War, Tom welcomes the opportunity to be cut off from the rest of the world. However, his life takes an unexpected turn when he meets Isabel, a spirited and lively woman who brings light and love back into his world. They fall in love, get married, and create a life together on this desolate island. Their blissful existence is shattered when Isabel suffers two devastating miscarriages, leaving her broken and desperate. Their lives change forever when a small rowboat washes up on the shore of the island. Inside, they discover a dead man and a crying baby. Consumed by grief and longing for a child of their own, Isabel persuades Tom to keep the baby as their own. Against his better judgment, he agrees, setting off a chain of events that will have far-reaching consequences. As the years go by, Tom and Isabel raise the child as their own, never revealing the truth of her origins. They name her Lucy and create a happy and loving home for her on the isolated island. However, as Lucy grows older, Tom begins to feel the weight of guilt and the repercussions of their decision. When he stumbles upon the child's biological mother, Hannah, grieving over the loss of her husband and daughter, Tom is torn between his loyalty to his wife and his moral obligation to do what is right. The Light Between Oceans is a masterfully written novel that explores themes of love, sacrifice, and forgiveness. M.L. Stedman beautifully captures the emotional turmoil faced by the characters and delves deep into the human psyche. The reader is forced to question the complexities of ethics and the consequences of moral choices. Through vivid descriptions and richly drawn characters, Stedman transports readers to the wild and unforgiving landscapes of Janus Rock, mirroring the intense emotions that the characters experience. The book is a testament to the power of love, the fragility of human relationships, and the unexpected consequences of our actions. In the end, The Light Between Oceans is a haunting and thought-provoking novel that will leave readers grappling with the question of what they would do in similar circumstances. It is a tale of heartache and redemption, reminding us of the boundless capacity of the human spirit to endure, to love, and to find solace in the darkest of times.

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the light between oceansquotes with image

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30 Best The Light Between Oceans Quotes With Image | Bookey

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1.You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day.2.There are times when the ocean is not the ocean-not blue, not even water, but some violent explosion of energy and danger.

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M.L. Stedman - The Light Between Oceans. WHSmith Richard and Judy Book Club Podcast Summer 2013

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"A husband who loses his wife is known as a widower, but there is no word to describe a parent who loses a child". It is a brave task for one to explore the trappings of parental love. It is a braver task still to interpret a bestselling page-turner on the trappings of parental love and refrain from falling prey to the wasted labours of an underwhelming screen adaptation. The challenge is embraced by Derek Cianfrance whom, tellingly, appears drawn to explorations of darkness and pain ( Blue Valentine; The Place Beyond the Pines). In The Light Between Oceans, Cianfrance's dramatisation of Australian author M. L. Stedman's first novel, the interplay of darkness and light gives a humbling lesson in lachrymosity, as even the stoics amongst us may end up needing to reach for the hidden hanky.

The year is post-war era of 1918, and Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender), a decorated WWI veteran and a deeply scarred man, seeks refuge as a lighthouse keeper on the remote Janus Island off the coast of Western Australia (the film was actually shot at Cape Campbell Lighthouse in New Zealand, to the chagrin of many Australian fans). Having secured the post - as not many have fallen over themselves for the prestige of probable lonesome death - his hopes for a secluded existence would have been answered had it not been for a case of serendipity.

Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander) is the ravishing daughter of Sherbourne's new employer. Finding herself inexorably attracted to the quiet man with the stubborn moustache, she invites herself onto a seaside picnic for two, and thereby inviting herself into his life. When she learns that no female companion is permitted to set foot on the island with exception of the lighthouse keeper's wife, she propositions him, with matrimony and life-long companionship.

For a man who has admittedly "never been good with words", Sherbourne certainly knows his way to a lady's heart with his honest, searing prose. If truth be told, he had me at "Dear Isabel". Their courtship is short but heart-warming, comprising essentially their initial picnic and three epistles that had me wondering whether the film had peaked too early.

Their blossoming marital bliss offers glimpses of light, however ultimately acts as a decoy for the darkness that befalls them. After a childless marriage bearing two tumultuous miscarriages, Isabel is soon consumed by crippling guilt and despair. The set-up is complete then, when a baby girl washes up ashore on a dinghy with a dead man whom is presumably her father, Isabel keenly adopts the infant as her own. As a decent, honourable man, Sherbourne's chivalrous acquiescence to his wife's plan proves his labour of love, and one which will have far-reaching consequences for the tight-knit island community.

If I've complained previously of romance drama lacking the gripping tales of love (i.e. Me Before You), The Light Between Oceans delivers it in spades. In fact, the film is all about love, and manifestations of the various forms of love; that between a husband and his wife, and a mother and her child (whether or not biological). In the end, it is the final letter from a destitute husband to wife which provides the epiphany that love is all that is worth fighting for.

What makes art-house films such as this such an enthralling cinematic experience is the finely tuned synchronicity and onscreen presence of its leading cast. Vikander, as the veritable Scandinavian screen goddess, is perfectly matched against the stolidly imposing Fassbender, so much so that the film has spawned an enduring real-life romance between the pair. Vikander is also no stranger to having children wrenched from her, in light of her highly lauded renditions of both Queen Caroline (in the Danish period drama A Royal Affair) and Gerda Wegener (whose childless marriage to transgender Danish artist Lili Elbe is captured in The Danish Girl).

Despite a promising title, The Light Between Oceans is a study in consequences. Every action begets a reaction. Every decision has its consequences, some unintended, but which have the capacity to pave the path to perdition for all involved. Regardless of your moral persuasions, the film is not one which will leave you sitting on the sidelines. Such an excruciating depth of feeling is conveyed and vested; the only fault would be that there is too much of it. The melodrama engendered by extensive close-up shots of Isabel, combined with soft lighting throughout, left me reeling in a state of troubled, emotional incontinence. The possibility of reprieve is a futile ask, as our hearts are pulled in directions which left me yearning for an auto-dry function after tumbling with such a full load.

Despite its relentless intensity, The Light Between Oceans has broken my film review drought of the past 5 months, and of this I shall be grateful. All things considered, I think I rather liked my choices. What about you?

Tom Sherbourne: Dearest Isabel, Each day and each night when I look out across the ocean, I try to see you standing on the pier. I've been thinking about our time together, and what you said. You were right; I've been around so much death for so long that it has made me numb. And I suppose that is why I came to Janus. 'Cause out here I'm only responsible for the light. For many years everything I touched would fade away and you are so full of life! That scares me. I admire your spirit too much for it to be clouded by my darkness. Yet, I can't stop thinking about you. And the times spent with you allowed me to feel again! And for that, I thank you. And I am forever grateful.

* * * * *

Isabel Graysmark: Dearest Tom, I've received your beautiful letter. Thank you. Thank you for opening up to me. I know how hard that must be for you. I also know how hard it is to have lost. But we will have to get on with life; and you still have a light inside of you. I've seen it, and it shines just as bright as the stars in your sky.

* * * * *

Tom Sherbourne: Isabel, I'm not too good with words. Never have been. I guess I never knew it was alright to talk about the things I felt, so, here it goes. I'd love to show you my island, and my life, and if you do decide to come, I promise I will take care of you for always and I will do my very best to be a good husband. I hope you will like Janus as much as I do.

* * * * *

Isabel Graysmark: Tom, When I first saw you I felt like I knew you, and I couldn't stop seeing my life with you. Building a family together. One that isn't stuck in the pain of the past. And so, if you are asking me if my proposition still stands, then my answer is "Yes". Yes! A thousand times "Yes".

* * * * *

Bill Graysmark: Tom, it is clear to anyone who meets you that you are talkative. But you are also a very good man. Now that's a relief, because you have the most precious thing in our lives. Take good care of her. Protect our little girl, she's all we have.

* * * * *

Tom Sherbourne: I wasn't expecting this. Life on Janus today... you can never tell what the tide is going to bring in from one day to the next. Anything that the two oceans fling at us. Anything that you can think of. Many of your brothers, your sons, your fathers didn't come back from the war. I don't know why God picked me to survive it. I don't know what right I have to be given life whilst it has been taken from others. And what I really need to tell you is, I just try to keep the light burning for whoever might need it.

* * * * *

Tom Sherbourne: Isabel, love. I couldn't go on the way things were. I couldn't live with myself. I'm sorrier than I'll ever be able to say for hurting you. We each get a little turn at life, and if this ends up being now my turn then it would still have been worth it. My time should have been up years ago. To have met you when I thought life was over, and been loved by you. If I lived another hundred years I couldn't have asked for better than that. I've loved you as best as know and I always will, which isn't saying much. You deserve someone a lot better than me. All I can do is ask God, and ask you, to forgive me for the harm I've caused. And to thank you for every day we spent together. I will always be your loving husband.

* * * * *

Isabel Graysmark: My darling Lucy, it has been such a long time. I promised I'd stay away from you and I have stuck to my word, however hard that was for me. I'm gone now, which is why you have this letter. And it brings me joy, because it means that you came to find us. I never gave up hope that you would. Knowing you were safe, and loved, allowed us to live our lives away from you. I hope life has been kind to you. I hope that you can forgive me for keeping you. And for letting you go. Know that you have always been beloved.

* * * * *

Frank Roennfeldt: You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day.

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"A husband who loses his wife is known as a widower, but there is no word to describe a parent who loses a child". It is a brave task for one to explore the trappings of parental love. It is a brav...

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Grief and Loss in TLBO (Condensed Notes)

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Grief and Loss in TLBO (Condensed Notes)

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A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from a drifting rowing boat. Directed by Derek ...

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PERSPECTIVE - The World of the Composer (Behind the Book 2020

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Style

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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[Ars Aeterna] The fight between right and wrong Exploring morality in M. L. Stedmans novel The Light between Oceans

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Lisa's VCE Guide: Unique Interpretations

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Lisa's VCE Guide: Unique Interpretations

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Unique Interpretations in VCE | Lisa Tran

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Book Club Notes: Useful for Part One - Character Perspectives

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Book Club Notes: Useful for Part One - Character Perspectives

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TLBO Questions and Comments for Close Study - Part One- Character

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Welcome to this month's book club discussion.

This month we are discussing The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, the debut novel of an Australian lawyer (now writer) who now lives in London.

The Light Between Oceans has been an international bestseller, winning numerous awards ( source). With the movie rights having been sold too, the movie will hopefully be coming to your local cinema in the not too distant future.

What did you think of it? Had you heard much about it before you read it?

This book was highly recommended to me, but nothing in particular was said about it, other than a vague mention that it was a sad book, beautifully written. So when I picked it up over my summer holiday to read it, I really had no idea what it was about. It took me a little bit of persistence to get going as I found the initial pace slow and the historical setting quite foreign. I might have studied Australian history and politics at Uni but I knew jack about life as a lighthouse keeper in Western Australia in between the World Wars. But I was intrigued.

Friends who read this were immediately hooked. How did you find it? It was only once I hit the last third of the book, that I was completely hooked. I think this is because I couldn't predict where the story would end (I always like to play the game "predict the ending"). I didn't know what I thought was the "right" ending as well.
The Plot
The premise of this book was a little far fetched to me but the moral conundrum posed was an effective way to explore the characters. The setting of the book was critical to the story too - I can't imagine how a couple would come to care for a baby in total isolation, not knowing the origins of the child in any other way. It was the arrival of the baby Lucy-Grace, almost a miracle to Isabel, that was the critical event in the book.

When I reflected afterwards about why I was so sympathetic towards Tom and Isabel (when really, they deprived a child from her mother from birth to 3 years), I think there were two reasons. Firstly, because as readers, we knew the heartbreak and trauma Isabel and Tom had suffered including the stillbirth of their son and previous miscarriages just months before Lucy-Grace's arrival.

Secondly, I think that because, as readers, we weren't introduced to Hannah until much later in the book, the attachment we had as readers to Isabel and Lucy was hard to break as well. Even though I suspect many of us had serious reservations about Isabel, it was hard to deny the strength of the bond between her and Lucy-Grace and their separation (and subsequent contact) was absolutely heart wrenching.

I was relieved but like many of you no doubt, fearful of what would unfold once Tom was charged by the Police. What did you think should happen? Did you think that the events played out in a believable fashion? Were you satisfied with the ending? Were you happy when Hannah went to Isabel with the intention of handing over Lucy-Grace? I must say I was. What did you think when she then changed her mind, upon Isabel's admission? Were you disappointed? I was. I was somewhat confounded by my response given I cannot imagine giving up my own child.

It was somewhat reassuring to me, when Lucy-Grace returned to Tom at the end of the book and it seemed clear that it had been the right decision for her to remain with Hannah. It was almost as if it was proof that blood could still be a powerful bond despite the interruption of that bond at the very beginning. I don't know if psychologists and family therapists would find this believable but it was reassuring to me.
The Characters Isabel
Isabel's character was an interesting one. I couldn't get a handle on her until late in the book by which stage I was increasingly appalled by her actions. I felt genuine empathy for Isabel at the start and when they took Lucy in after the devastating still birth of their son. I cannot imagine the horror of this, which was exacerbated by her isolation and the cumulative devastation of previous miscarriages.

However, her total refusal to acknowledge or even empathise with Hannah and her inability to have any insight frustrated me. I felt that her desire to be a mother was strong enough that she should know, or have some idea how Hannah may have felt. I know this must have been a coping mechanism on some level but I was appalled by her selfishness and the consequences of her actions on Tom. They could have led to his death when she was the instigator and propagator of the lie.

What did you make of Isabel? Am I being too harsh?
Tom
Tom's character was so well drawn and so consistent throughout the book. You could almost predict his next decision or response, not in a boring predictable way, but because the reader understood his principles and his approach to life.

I think Tom's frosty relationship with and subsequent estrangement from his father and brother was telling - his father basically took his mother away from him. Tom was clearly profoundly affected by his mother's departure and it was heartbreaking when he tracked down her address as an adult, only to find she had recently died. His longing for his own mother was palpable and I think this is what was at the pit of his stomach and explained his deep unease at keeping Lucy-Grace, once they became aware of Hannah's existence.

I think this is also why he made contact with Hannah and that he wanted the lie to be uncovered.

Ironically, his appreciation of the mother-child bond ultimately led to the breaking up of his wife's bond with "her" child.

Why did you think Tom made the decisions he did? Did you agree with him?

What did you think of his decision to take the heat and to let Isabel off the hook?

I found the prospect of Tom languishing in jail for Isabel's crimes difficult to stomach. I felt his love for her was missplaced and I was relieved when she finally came to his aid late in the piece.
Hannah
I felt terrible for Hannah. She could not win and through no fault of her own. I didn't know what she should do when Lucy returned to her grief stricken. It was an impossible situation. I supported her decision to return Lucy to Isabel and was then sad when she didn't follow through. I have subsequently thought this was an odd response given I would never dream of giving up any of my own children. It was just the force and intensity of the bond between Lucy and Isabel was so great; it seemed as though it would harm Lucy to be forced to stay with Hannah.

What did you think of Hannah?
Lucy-Grace
Lucy-Grace's subsequent visit to Tom after Isabel's death was interesting to me insofar as she articulated her new found understanding of both Isabel and Hannah's situations, following the birth of her own child. I found their conversation fascinating.

What did you make of it? Do you think it was a realistic ending that Lucy-Grace seemed to have turned out ok despite the trauma she suffered in being separated from Tom and Isabel as a preschooler?
Janus Island
Janus Island was obviously not a person, but was a central character in the book. What happened, could only have happened given the isolation of Janus Island.

I loved reading about life on Janus Island and the beauty and isolation of the place. It seemed like an almost idyllic place to raise a child. I could not imagine living (or raising children) in such a place but thought Tom's experience in the war along with his introverted, solitary nature explained his love of the place.

I couldn't really understand Isabel's desire to live there and to pursue Tom knowing where he lived and his vocation but perhaps this was partly explained by a desire to remove herself from the oppressiveness of her parents' grief following the deaths of both of her brothers in the war.
My Favourite Line/Scene
My favourite line was from Tom after he was charged by the Police: "Putting down the burden of the lie has meant giving up the freedom of the dream." I was struck by this and found it poignant. Confession is a relief, but we are all left with the reality of the consequences of our decisions.
In a nutshell
I think this book raised some interesting questions about the power of attachment, the lengths to which some people are prepared to go to become parents, the tension between what is right for a child and her parent and how this might change over time.

I thought it was well written and I found the stories of the aftermath of the war both interesting and sad. It gave a fascinating snapshot of life in Australia between the wars and the grief and racism (which ultimately led to Lucy-Grace's father's death) of that time.

It was a book that will stay with me and that I would happily recommend, with a vague mention of it being a sad book.

If you'd like to read more, I found this interview with the author interesting (and a bit mysterious). So many questions.
What did you think of the book? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it to someone else? I've asked a few questions during this post too and I'd love to hear your thoughts about any/all of them.

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SnS Book Club: The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman - Style & Shenanigans

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Welcome to this month's book club discussion. This month we are discussing The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, the debut novel of an Australian lawyer (now writer) who now lives in London. The Light Between Oceans has been an international bestseller, winning numerous awards ( source).

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In the wake of World War I, on a remote island off the coast of Australia, lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel make a life-altering choice: to keep and raise a foundling child who is not theirs. The repercussions of this decision shape M.L. Stedman's stunning debut novel, The Light Between Oceans.

We caught up with Stedman (herself born and raised in Western Australia) for a discussion of right and wrong, moral ambiguity and an author's responsibility to her characters.

What a mesmerizing story. Did anything specific inspire you to write The Light Between Oceans?
I write fairly instinctively, just seeing what comes up when I sit down at the page. For this story, it was a lighthouse, then a woman and a man. Before long, a boat washed up on the beach, and in it I could see a dead man, and then a crying baby. Everything that happens in the book stems from this initiating image-a bit like the idea of 'Big Bang'-an initial point that seems tiny turns out to be incredibly dense, and just expanded outward further and further. I got to know Tom and Isabel as I wrote them, and was drawn into their seemingly insoluble dilemma, and their struggle to stay true to their love for each other as well as to their own deepest drives.

The major moral question of keeping a child that isn't yours is posed early in the book. Do you think there was a "right" decision for Tom and Isabel?
Aha! It's up to each reader to come up with their own answer to this one.

Fair enough. Well, you do a wonderful job of refusing to pass judgment on your characters. Was this a conscious choice and if so, was it difficult to do?
It was a conscious choice, yes. I think today more than ever we can fall into "sound-bite judgment," reaching conclusions on the basis of quite a cursory consideration of an issue. It's a kind of moral multitasking, that stems perhaps from being required to have an opinion on everything. If we really stop to consider things, they're rarely black and white.

As to the second part of your question, the more my own views differed from that of a character, the more satisfying I found it to explore them and to put their point of view as convincingly as possible.

To this end, do you think there is a "bad guy" here? Do all books need heroes and antagonists?
I don't think there are any "bad guys" in the book, just some poor choices made on the basis of imperfect information or perspective (i.e. the lot of the standard-issue human). Stories need tension, which can be supplied by antagonists, but here it's supplied by fate or circumstance-the overwhelming force that pretty much all the characters are up against. One good character's gain will be another good character's loss, which makes the questions a lot harder. I didn't want there to be any "safe place" in the book where the reader could relax and say, "I'm completely sure of what the right thing to do is here."

If we really stop to consider things, they're rarely black and white.

Speaking of antagonists, the landscape of Janus Rock and the great sea beyond is awfully unforgiving. Is it based on a real location?
No and yes. The island of Janus Rock is entirely fictitious (although I have a placeholder for it on Google maps). But the region where the Great Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet is real, and the climate, weather and the landscape are more or less as I've described them. I wrote some of the book there: It's a very beautiful, if sometimes fierce, part of the world.

Lighthouses are always weighty images in literature. What do they represent to you?
A lighthouse automatically implies potential drama: You only find them where there's a risk of going astray or running aground. They're a reminder, too, of human frailty, and the heroic endeavor of mankind to take on the forces of nature in a ludicrously unfair fight to make safe our journey through this world. And they betoken binary opposites such as safety and danger, light and dark, movement and stasis, communication and isolation-they are intrinsically dynamic because they make our imaginations pivot between them.

What kind of research did you do to prepare to write?
To prepare, none at all! My research very much followed the story rather than leading it. I climbed up lighthouses, and went through the lightkeepers' logbooks in the Australian National Archives-wonderful. And I spent time in the British Library, reading battalion journals and other materials from Australian soldiers in WWI: heartbreaking accounts that often left me in tears.

Do you have any useful tips for aspiring novelists?
Write because you love it. Write because that's how you want to spend those irreplaceable heartbeats. Don't write to please anyone else, or to achieve something that will retrospectively validate your choice.

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Author Interview - M.L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans

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In the wake of World War I, on a remote island off the coast of Australia, lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel make a life-altering choice: to keep and raise a foundling child who is not theirs. The repercussions of this decision shape M.L. Stedman's stunning debut novel, The Light Between Oceans.

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Better Reading Book Club - Fireside Chat 

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Better Reading Book Club - Fireside Chat 

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Better Reading Book Club Live - The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

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LBO Character - Context, Values and Themes 

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LBO Character - Context, Values and Themes 

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LBO Characters - Context, Values, Themes and Perspectives

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Interpretive Response Essay Planning 2# 

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Interpretive Response Essay Planning 2# 

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Analysis excerpt from this video:

'Liz sits there helpless'

* From the beginning of the short story we can see that Liz isn't, or doesn't feel in control of her situation. The step by step process where she needs to 'put the key in the ignition and turn it. Fire up the car and drive away' showcases how the smallest details of starting the car, something that should be so simple instead requires immense mental effort on her behalf.

'And he's in there, alone, where she's left him'.

* Her guilt bubbles to the surface here because it's as though she's the villain here, and she's to blame for leaving him alone.

'Abandoned him to a roomful of rampaging strangers'

* What's really interesting here is her description of the other children. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity for Daniel to befriend others and have a great time, she describes them as 'rampaging strangers', giving us a sense that Daniel is subject to an unfamiliar environment that is wild, frenzied, rioting.

"Guerilla warfare", "Jungle gym", "seasoned commanders"

* These "fighter" phrases reveal Liz's anxious mindset, as she imagines a world where her son is almost in the wilderness, every man for himself, as though it's the survival of the fittest - and which Liz so fearfully express, "not that there's going to be anybody with enough time to notice that Daniel needs help", is not an environment where Daniel belongs.

"She digs in her bag for her lipstick, her fingers searching for the small cylinder, and pulls out a crayon, then a battery, then a tampon, then a gluestick."

* Her everyday objects are splashed with Daniel's belongings - the crayon, the gluestick, and demonstrate how intertwined her life is now with her child. This foreshadows her return to her pre-baby life - that things will not be the same.

"The smell of the place, that's what throws her, the scent of it all, adult perfumes, air breathed out by computers and printers and photocopiers."

* Even her sense of smell betrays her being away from Daniel. There's a sense of alienation, of nausea that shows readers like us that Liz doesn't feel like she belongs. This is in contrast to later in the story when she is reunited with Daniel and is comforted by 'inhaling[ing] the scent of him again'.

"Same computer, same shiny worn spot on the space bar..."

* The repetition of 'same' actually heightens how much has actually changed for Liz. Her entire world is now Daniel, whereas everything in the office is as it used to be. Therefore, there's this sense that the people's lives in the office remain unchanged, highlighting again Liz's alienation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're right, of course they are."

* This sarcastic internal monologue reflects Liz's current state of mind, where she's experiencing a disconnect from her coworkers, and 'the land of the living'.

"Delete, she presses. Punching the key like a bird pecking. Delete, delete, delete."

* We can feel Liz's exasperation at this stage. The simile 'like a bird pecking' automates Liz's actions in the workplace, as though she is doing it by switching to a 'mechanical form' of herself. The repetition of 'delete, delete, delete' gives us the sense that she's frustratingly attempting to 'delete' her self-acknowledged, perhaps over-the-top anxiety surrounding Daniel, or trying to delete herself out of her situation. Whichever is unclear and left up to interpretation. Perhaps both ring true.

'Returning to work after maternity leave'

* Liz's narrative interspersed with new mum's pamphlet. The juxtaposition of the pamphlet's words 'being a stay-at-home mum can begin to seem mundane and repetitive' is contrasted with Liz's love of motherhood - she is at odds with what society tells her she should be feeling.

'[Daniel]'d have his thumb in his mouth right now. Not smiling, that's for sure.'

* There's a self-projection of anxiety here with Liz assuming that the childcarers are unable to look after Daniel properly, and that he's suffering.

'God, these endless extended moments where you're left in limbo, the time dangling like a suspended toy on a piece of elastic.'

* This simile highlights how her mindset is completely consumed with Daniel, as she likens her daily experiences with objects and things related to Daniel and childhood. She struggles to switch between her identity as a mother, and her previous identity as a colleague in the workplace.

'Caroline, Julie and Stella had laughed dutifully enough, but their faces had shown a kind of pained disappointment, something faintly aggrieved.'

* Perhaps this is Cate Kennedy's commentary on society and motherhood. The expectations others have on you as a new mother, and how you should be feeling.

'He doesn't run over when he sees her'.

* The opening of this chapter is blunt and brutal. Liz has longed to see Daniel all day, her anxiety getting the best of her, and yet at the moment of their reunion, it's not as she expects. In this sense, we can to feel that Liz is very much alone in her anxiety and despair and, not the other way around with Daniel.

'She's fighting a terrible nausea, feeling the sweat in the small of her back.'

* Unlike other stories in this collection, her pain isn't because the absence of love, but because of its strength. Her love for Daniel is so intense that it's physiological, making her unwell to have been away from him.

'Cake'

* The symbol of cake represents her pre-baby life, a time when she was concerned with the 'account of Henderson's' and 'delete fourth Excel column'. Her priorities have now shifted, and the celebrated 'cake' tradition in the workplace, one that is at the centre of several conversations, is no longer to significance to Liz. Her husband, Andrew's attempt to celebrate Liz's first day back at work with cake is highly ironic. The societal expectation that Liz is happy to be back at work even extends to her husband, and heightens how Liz is very much alone in her experience.

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Close analysis of 'Cake' from Like a House on Fire

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Analysis excerpt from this video: 'Liz sits there helpless' * From the beginning of the short story we can see that Liz isn't, or doesn't feel in control of her situation. The step by step process where she needs to 'put the key in the ignition and turn it.

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Views, Values, Perspective and Attitudes 

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Views, Values, Perspective and Attitudes 

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Views, Values, Perspectives and Interpretations

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Interpretive Response Essay Planning 1# 2019

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Interpretive Response Essay Planning 1# 2019

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Interpretive Response - Essay Topic Handout

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ML Stedman's Debut Novel: The Light Between Oceans

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Module 3_ Close Study Overview from CANVAS

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From Virginia Woolf to Colm Toibin, the lighthouse has been a source of myth-making in literature. The lighthouse has stood for sanctuary, the edge of knowledge and reason. Its beam of white brilliance slashes inky-black nights, thick sea mists and dense squalls to light the way of the heroic and mark the graves of the reckless.

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Whether you share this mesmerising Australian novel with your reading group before you catch the screen adaptation, or follow-up the film with the book, The Light Between Oceans is sure to spark a memorable discussion. Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel are the only inhabitants of Janus Rock, a remote island off Western Australia. They live a quiet life, cocooned from the rest of the world, until their lives hit an unthinkable crossroads, and they break the rules to follow their hearts... Start with these reading group questions and make your next book club meet-up one to remember.
Reading Group Questions

Whose story would you say this is?

Do you think characters in the book do anything 'wrong'? If so, who and what? If you trace back wrongdoing to its very root in the novel, where would you say it starts?

Are any of the characters 'bad'? If so, who? What makes a person warrant the description 'bad'?

Which of the characters did you have most sympathy with and why? Did it change at different times in the novel? Describe how your attitude to characters developed or switched along the way. What caused the changes?

What would you have done in Isabel's place: i) when the boat washed up; ii) when the Anzac Day events were revealed; and iii) when the police came to the island? What would you have done in Tom's place at each stage?

Discuss the importance of 'off stage' influences - such as the war, and the character of Frank, on the plot, and actions of the characters.

'A kid needs its mum,' Tom says in chapter 5. Discuss the effect of motherlessness on the characters.

'Your family's never in your past. You carry it around with you everywhere,' Tom tells Isabel. Consider the meaning of 'family' in the novel.

Do you think the child ended up with the right family at the end of the book? How do you think the situation should have been resolved?

Are right and wrong absolutes, or do they change depending on your point of view? If they are not fixed points, how do you decide what's right and what's wrong, and what happens when your values differ from your neighbours'?

Tom is torn between not hurting those he loves, and following the rules. Is it ever wrong to obey the law? If so, when?

Discuss the impact of Isabel's miscarriages and subsequent frame of mind on her moral and legal culpability. Is Isabel more deserving of the reader's compassion because her actions spring from a natural and positive urge to love?

'Sometimes the contract to forget is as important as any promise to remember.' Discuss the role of forgetting in forgiveness.

Who has the right to forgive a wrong? Tom and Isabel are treated leniently because Hannah speaks up for them, and encourages clemency. Should victims be able to reduce the penalties handed down to wrongdoers whose actions have affected them?

'On the Offshore Lights you can tell yourself any story you want, and no one will say you're wrong - not the seagulls, not the prisms, not the wind.' Discuss the relationship between isolation and illusion/delusion in the novel.

The author describes the structure of the book as resting on a series of triangles, with different characters becoming the fulcrum at different times - e.g. Tom/Izzy/Lucy; Hannah/Frank/Grace; Violet/Bill/Isabel; Tom/Ralph/Bluey; Septimus/Hannah/Gwen. Do you agree? If so, what effect do you think the changes in balance have on the reader's experience of the story?

Light, literally and metaphorically, is core to the story. The incandescence of Janus Light, the oil lamps, electric lamps, the candles and the darkness they stave off, all serve to illuminate the characters and their changing era. Discuss the meaning of light in The Light Between Oceans.

The novel is full of opposites - light and dark; ocean and land; the wild Southern Ocean and the warmer Indian Ocean; war and peace; truth and lies; guilt and redemption. Some of these have symbolic value - what role does the symbolism play? What is the impact of these 'Janus' pairs that run through the novel?

Letters feature prominently in the novel. Discuss how and why the writers used them to reveal, conceal and confess.

Consider the importance of stoicism and self-sacrifice in the novel. Are these qualities still valued today?

What role has war played in shaping modern Australia?

The continent of Australia hasn't moved since 1926, but are we as a nation closer to the centre of things - more 'stitched into the world's fabric'? Discuss isolation then and now, and its effect on the Australian national psyche.

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Whether you share this mesmerising Australian novel with your reading group before you catch the screen adaptation, or follow-up the film with the book, The Light Between Oceans is sure to spark a memorable discussion. Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel are the only inhabitants of Janus Rock, a remote island off Western Australia.

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Composer Perspective

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Composer perspective … The Light Between Oceans2019

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The Light Between Oceans - SuperSummary Study Guide

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By Reviewed by Patricia Maunder

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Perth-raised, London-based author M.L. (Margot) Stedman's first novel is a work of such quality, insight and intrigue that it prompted an international bidding war among publishers. Primarily set in the 1920s, far off Western Australia's south-west coast, as well as in a small mainland port, The Light Between Oceans is an evocative tale with an irresistible ethical and emotional conundrum at its heart.

The book riffs heavily on the theme of duality, starting with the tiny, fictitious island where the story unfolds: Janus Rock, named after ancient Rome's two-faced god of beginnings and endings, is at the confluence of the Southern and Indian oceans.

Illustration: Rocco Fazzari.

Readers are frequently invited to contemplate such dichotomies as light and dark, life and death (virtually every character has lost one or more child, parent, spouse or sibling) and, in particular, right and wrong - which are far from clear-cut in this novel.

What drives The Light Between Oceans along, and causes conventional moral absolutes to come into question, is laid bare in the prologue.

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman. Vintage, $32.95.

A dinghy washes up on Janus Rock, delivering a dead man and a crying baby. The lighthouse keeper, Tom, and his wife Isabel, who has miscarried several times, ponder the virtues of alerting the distant authorities or passing the girl off as their own. Surely this child they name Lucy is an orphan, Isabel argues, delivered to them as a gift from God.

We are then cast back to Tom's early days as lighthouse keeper, seeking solace in isolation after World War I's terror and guilt. On leave, he meets Isabel, a beacon of hope for this man who is a model of courage and honour but living in psychological darkness.

After catching up with that fateful day of Lucy's arrival, the story slowly unspools the repercussions of Tom and Isabel's decision about the baby's fate.

When the scene shifts to the public milieu of Port Partageuse, the pace quickens and repercussions become more profound. The plot takes a few engrossing twists and turns before being resolved in a deeply poignant epilogue that is exquisitely in tune with the book's nuanced exploration of love, loyalty, morality and parenthood.

This exploration is carried out through narrative more than character because, with the possible exception of Tom, The Light Between Oceans's characters tend towards the two-dimensional.

Perhaps these housewives, lighthousemen, mariners and small-town civic leaders are intentionally presented as the taciturn, uncomplicated people that convention deems typical of old-time regional Australia.

The representation of place is vivid. Life on Janus Rock in particular is almost palpable: the sense of extreme, rather splendid isolation; of being embraced by the natural world of waves, wind and sky; the calm, measured workings of the lighthouse and the human activities that support it, including regimented logbook entries and the delivery of provisions.

The dinghy's cargo brings disorder and doubt into this self-contained bubble, but also great joy. Stedman's descriptions of maternal devotion are powerful but Tom's sense of love for Lucy is also persuasively written.

That this couple and, eventually, most of the characters develop such an intense concern for the child's welfare is what makes the novel's bizarre chain of events so believable. The author's greatest achievement, however, is the validation given to their disparate views, despite the fact they are largely determined by personal interest. Moral ambiguity is rarely so compelling.

A remarkable debut.

The Light Between Oceans
M.L. Stedman
Vintage, $32.95

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By Reviewed by Patricia Maunder Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Perth-raised, London-based author M.L. (Margot) Stedman's first novel is a work of such quality, insight and intrigue that it prompted an international bidding war among publishers.

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In the hands of writer-director Derek Cianfrance ( Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines), M.L. Stedman's engrossing 2013 Thomas Hardy-inspired novel about a World War I veteran who becomes a lightkeeper on Janus Rock, 100 miles off the western coast of Australia, has been transformed into little more than a pious tearjerker.

The title The Light Between Oceans derives from Janus Rock's location, where the Indian Ocean meets the Great Southern Ocean. And the movie's luxuriant landscapes and keyed-up performers lull you into early acceptance, before the film reveals its fundamental hollowness. Michael Fassbender makes sensitivity and dignity sexy as Thomas Sherbourne, who survived the trenches with his sanity tested and humanity intact. Alicia Vikander captures youthful rapture in full bloom as Isabel Graysmark, his beautiful local bride, who lives with him in idyllic isolation until she repeatedly miscarries. When a dead man and a still-breathing baby bob up in a dinghy nearby, she thinks Providence has answered her prayers. She persuades Thomas to bury the corpse, destroy the boat, and pretend the baby is hers. It's a setup worthy of Greek tragedy, but it ends in a high-flown whirlwindof confession and forgiveness.

At the start, Vikander is intoxicating when Isabel realizes she must take the reins of romance with this psychologically wounded man. She even pulls off the potentially embarrassing shot of Isabel exulting in the stark beauty of her little island. Fassbender played, with eerie humor, a robot obsessed with Peter O'Toole's Lawrence of Arabia in Prometheus. Here his portrait of a rigid man softening for his bride recalls O'Toole's performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He and Vikander are charming together, especially in the scene when she shaves off his moustache.

Although Cianfrance skillfully evokes love at first sight, he can't get beyond it persuasively. He makes too many other events happen at close to first sight, including Thomas's choice to accept Isabel's plan, then his decision years later to go back on it as soon as he learns that the girl's biological mother, Hannah Roennfeldt (Rachel Weisz), lives on the mainland and has been pining for her long-lost daughter.

Cianfrance lacks Stedman's storytelling ability to sweep the characters up in a web of destiny that spans the Western front and Western Australia. Through some deft narrative stitching, Stedman maintains the contrast between the busy town life in Partageuse and the Sherbournes' cockeyed country existence on Janus Rock. Cianfrance rests that burden almost entirely on the broad shoulders of Ralph Addicott, a sane old salt played by the great Jack Thompson, and his mate, Bluey Smart (Thomas Unger), who keep the lighthouse supplied every three months. But they alone can't express the loyalties and confusions of townsfolk, who are just one generation removed from the first pioneers.

Cianfrance is so committed to Thomas and Isabel's perspectives that his movie becomes claustrophobic without ever being particularly revealing (or convincing). Isabel may tell herself that the girl couldn't have a real live mother and that the man in the dinghy doesn't deserve a proper funeral. But her scheme is simply selfish and unethical, and Thomas knows it. Stedman puts it more clearly than any scene or line in the movie: "There are weeks at a time when Tom can almost rest in the story of a normal, happy family, as if it is some kind of opiate." What he faces is less a moral quandary than an existential dilemma.

As a lightkeeper, Thomas has fashioned a rugged, honest existence of labor, order, and service, but Isabel's life force is what makes him feel alive. He doesn't want to deny his wife anything, but how can he compromise his integrity? Cianfrance fails to depict Thomas's heroic stature; he merely illustrates the job Thomas does on Janus Rock rather than dramatize it or testify to its dignity. No matter how lush and magical the locations (actually, New Zealand), The Light Between Oceans turns to visual mush, because it lacks fiber-unlike Stedman's book, which echoes many great writers besides Hardy, including Herman Melville in his grasp of how the nuts and bolts of a working process can yield character as well as metaphoric gold. Here's how the author describes igniting a light:

He climbed the tiny metal stairs that led to the inner deck around the light itself, ducked through the opening and into the apparatus of the light. He primed the oil by lighting a flame under its dish so that it vaporized and reached the mantle as a gas. He then set a match to the mantle, which transformed the vapor into a white brilliance. He went down to the next level and started the motor. The light began to turn with the exact, even rhythm of the five-second flash. He picked up the pen, and wrote in the wide, leather-bound log: "Lit up at 5:09 p.m. Wind N/NE 15 knots. Overcast, squally. Sea 6." Then, he added his initials- T.S.

There's far more character as well as poetry in that description than in all of Cianfrance's overwrought inventions. Isabel, in the midst of her first miscarriage, struggles to climb the vertiginous steps from the lightkeeper's cottage to the lighthouse, during a pounding rainstorm.

The performances suffer from Cianfrance's tendency to inflate conflicts that lend themselves to silent-movie melodrama while shaving the rough edges off the characters and scanting the book's legal and marital disputes. Weisz, as the Other Mother, does the movie's most original, haunting acting. She's not afraid to make grief both harsh and pathetic, even grating.

It's as if she gets her personality and edge from the novel, not the script. The book aspires to be about our common mortality, but the movie is a melodrama about mother love gone haywire. Cianfrance reduces even nature's elements to the elements of melodrama. A furious gale is simply the means to leave Isabel in a near-dead faint at the lighthouse door.

Stedman depicts a downpour drenching Partageuse from the schoolyard to the cemetery, noting, "The rain transforms the living and the dead without preference." You couldn't guess from seeing the film that Stedman is capable of paying homage to the transcendent final line of James Joyce's "The Dead": "His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." In the movie, the characters are buried not in rain or snow or earth, but in sentimentality.

Michael Sragow is a contributing editor to FILM COMMENT and writes its Deep Focus column. He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. He also curates "The Moviegoer" at the Library of America website.

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Deep Focus: The Light Between Oceans - Film Comment

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In the hands of writer-director Derek Cianfrance ( Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines), M.L. Stedman's engrossing 2013 Thomas Hardy-inspired novel about a World War I veteran who becomes a lightkeeper on Janus Rock, 100 miles off the western coast of Australia, has been transformed into little more than a pious tearjerker.

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A film about love, truth and the secrets people keep in relationships, and what happens when those secrets are exposed to the light of day.

The best-selling novel that swept readers away with its transporting story of fate, love, moral dilemmas and the lengths one couple will go to see their hard-fought dreams realized, comes to the screen as a lush, classically star-crossed romance starring written for the screen and directed by Derek Cianfrance.

M.L. Stedman's novel The Light Between Oceans was published in the U.S. by Scribner in July, 2012 and was immediately embraced by readers and critics alike, appearing on both The New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists and as Amazon's Best Book of the Month for August of that year. Since then it has been translated into over 35 languages.

As mesmerizingly beautiful as it is heartbreaking, M.L. Stedman's novel "The Light Between Oceans" was a literary sensation upon its publication in 2012. Set on the remote edge of Western Australia in the years following the devastation of the Great War, the book lured readers into a seductively old-fashioned tale of love and impossible choices beneath which lay roiling, contemporary questions of right and wrong, the effects of war and peace, the wonders of connection and the dangers of blind scruples.

This is where Tom Sherbourne, a shell-shocked veteran, devotes himself to his new job as lighthouse keeper on the otherwise uninhabited Janus Rock, surrounded by nothing but the vast sea, seeking solace in the solitude. He intends to remain alone, but unexpectedly meets Isabel Graysmark, a vivacious young woman from the town of Partageuse across the harbor, herself grieving two brothers lost in the war.

Despite the obstacles, their love flourishes in the stark isolation and they are soon married. Passionate for each other and hoping to be part of creating a new life together, they try to start a family, but fate intercedes. Then, one night, a mysterious rowboat holding a dead man and an infant girl washes ashore, setting off a chain of decisions-some impetuous, others wrenching- that unravel with shattering consequences.

Cianfrance immediately felt the cinematic potential of a story that invokes the power of landscape, the aftermath of war, the all-consuming state of passion and, most of all, the ageless tradition of romances that push a couple into illuminating moral borderlands. He adapted Stedman's book faithfully, yet with a filmmaker's eye for the details that propel human relationships into both bliss and catastrophe.

"'The Light Between Oceans' is a film about love, truth and the secrets people keep in relationships, and what happens when those secrets are exposed to the light of day," says Cianfrance. "It is a moral drama, but at the core, it is a timeless love story."

"The Light Between Oceans" marks the first time director Derek Cianfrance has adapted a novel, but he has long been interested in creating a cinema of intimacy and probing into themes of love, family legacy, loneliness and choices-the very same themes that made Stedman's novel so resonant to so many. He won acclaim in 2010 for writing and directing "Blue Valentine," a visually inventive portrait of a marriage breaking apart, then garnered accolades for writing and directing "The Place Beyond the Pines," a lyrically told crime drama that turns a bank heist into an intense father-son love story.

"I've essentially made exploring relationships and families my life's work to this point," he says. "I feel as if my mission as a filmmaker is to explore the most intimate relationships in both private and expansive ways."

With "The Light Between Oceans," Cianfrance saw a chance to explore that duality in an entirely fresh way. The allure of Stedman's book was in part its fable-like elements: a secluded island escape, a love affair removed from the constraints of society, a crying baby found at sea, and a grieving woman whose husband and only child disappear without a trace. But what really drew him in was the chance to explore how even the most isolated and intense love must find a way to weather the toughness of truth and the consequences of life's harshest choices.

It's no coincidence that the story of "The Light Between Oceans" takes place on Janus Rock, aptly named after the two-faced Roman God of endings and beginnings. Like Janus, the characters of Tom and Isabel are caught between two poles: between a past haunted by war's destruction and a future they hope to imagine together; between hiding away from the darkness of the world and chasing the flickering promise of light; between doing what seems fair in the moment and seeing what is truly just. The trick was wrapping all of this into a film that is also a spellbinding romance and, ultimately, a reckoning.

For Cianfrance, the best way in was through the personal emotions he experienced while reading the book himself. "I wanted to be incredibly faithful to the book," he explains. "The most meaningful compliment on the film I've received so far was from Stedman herself, who said she spent the day weeping after attending a screening...weeping because she felt that she was understood. She said, 'Isn't that the point of life, that we, as human beings, are trying to be understood by each other?'"

Like millions of fans around the world, Cianfrance was transfixed by Stedman's writing, h, her ability to create equal parts suspense and poetry out of dark secrets and doom-laden decisions. He remembers openly crying on the subway while reading the book, despite the stares. "In the years since, I've seen other people crying while reading the book in cafes, parks and subways and it validates for me that this is such a deeply human and universal story," he says. "I think people are drawn to it because it is so honest about the pain of love and about love lost, but also because it then becomes a beautiful rendering of redemption and healing."

Already able to visualize the story unspooling on the screen, Cianfrance made the decision to go after the story with total commitment. At that point, the novel had been acquired by DreamWorks and was in early stages of development by producer David Heyman ("Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," "Gravity," the "Harry Potter" films) of Heyday Films. Heyman, too, had fallen for the book at the suggestion of executive producer Rosie Alison ("Testament of Youth," "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas").

"I'm very drawn to stories where you can see all sides, and this is a story that economically shows all sides," Heyman says. "You see not just Tom's, Isabel's and Hannah's sides in what happens, but every character you meet seems to bring in another layer. In that way, the story takes you on a personal, emotional journey that I think people will want to discuss long after they've left the theatre."

Adds Alison, "The book has a hard, diamond-like quality in its take on love, loss and self-sacrifice. In a sense it's a psychological thriller in which the mystery is where the strongest love lies."

Cianfrance approached Heyman ready to fight for the project, telling him he was destined to make the film, and his enthusiasm was irresistible. Having seen "Blue Valentine" and "The Place Beyond the Pines," Heyman already knew Cianfrance's nuanced writing and strong visual style were a match for the vivid immersiveness of the book.

"There's no artifice to Derek's work," Heyman says. "That was so key to this adaptation because it's such a charged story. We were fortunate that Derek connected with these characters in a profound way. The spirit of the book is written on every page of his script and felt in every frame of the film."

Cianfrance wrote the screenplay without input from Stedman, but the author was omnipresent in his head. "Even though we never talked, I had such a deep relationship with her in my mind. I treated her words as scripture. I read the book so many times, I had it memorized," he explains. "I always tried to remain true to the feelings I had reading it for the first time. That was my North Star."

He also made sure to keep the book's rigorous lack of judgment towards its complex characters intact. "Something that really attracted me is the fact that there are no bad people in the story," he explains. "That doesn't mean everyone makes the right choices or that they don't hurt other people, but in their hearts and in their minds and in their souls they are good people. And as a filmmaker interested in humanity, it was a great privilege to try to tell a story where the supposed 'villains' of the story might be the people you love most."

While Cianfrance was steadfast in his respect for the material, he was equally as dedicated in wanting to find that mysterious alchemy that allows works of literature to live and breathe in movie theatres. In fact, he himself faced many wrenching decisions during the adaptation: decisions about where to compact Stedman's carefully-structured tale and where to translate scenes into something more explicitly visual so it could feel alive in flesh and blood.

"In any adaptation, I think the greatest challenge is that of subtraction, what you must leave out," he says. "It's like sculpture; once you embrace that, it can be the wind beneath your wings. Eventually you can expand the moments and themes that you love and push the boundaries to find even more truthfulness. This is when it really starts to become alive. There are, of course, key differences between cinema and literature and one of those is the way time plays out. There has to be a different way of handling pace and also of handling secrets and revelations."

The latter especially intrigued the director, who always saw a central theme of the story as the way secrets within a marriage can be both wrecking and uniting. "The way cinema reveals secrets was as important to making the adaptation work," Cianfrance says. "For example, in the book, Tom and Isabel both learn the truth about the baby at the same time, but in the movie, Tom sees it first, so you see and feel Tom carrying this weight alone."

Only after he'd completed several drafts did Cianfrance meet Stedman for the first time. "I was so nervous," he remembers, "Because I respect her so greatly and truly hoped I could do her work justice. We had dinner together and she was just one of the most charming, thoughtful, loving human beings I've ever met. She's a very private person, but she became a great support to me as I made the film. I felt very sensitive to the fact I was taking her creation somewhere new, and her trust went a long way in giving me the confidence I needed to make the film."

Says Stedman, "I'm so fortunate that, through Heyday Films and DreamWorks, this project found its way into the hands of the wonderful Derek Cianfrance. He has expertly and lovingly brought the world of the book to life in a new medium, complete with brilliant cast, cinematography and music. The result is an exquisitely beautiful and emotionally authentic film that stays true to the spirit of my novel, yet also embodies the deeply personal interpretation of the director and his actors. It's been a great privilege to watch it come into being."

The producers were thrilled with the structure of the screenplay. "We knew we had something special," says producer Jeffrey Clifford ("Chloe," "Up in the Air"). "Derek's script distilled the essential emotions of the novel in authentic and naturalistic ways and really brought to life the strength of the characters."

The cast was equally as affected by Cianfrance's draft. "The script moved me to tears, as the book did," says Michael Fassbender, who takes on the conflicted character of Tom Sherbourne. "Tom and Isabel's love story is so beautifully told. When we see something on screen that we relate to as human beings-and I think people will see themselves in Tom and Isabel-that is when cinema is most powerful."

As "The Light Between Oceans" begins, Tom Sherbourne, a combat veteran haunted by time spent on the western front battlefields in a brutal war that took the lives of 60,000 of his countryman, arrives in Western Australia. Trying to escape the looping cycles of grief, guilt and trauma, he finds a perfect way to be secluded, yet useful, as the lighthouse keeper who meticulously keeps the beacon between the Indian and Southern oceans burning. Yet, rather than isolation, Tom finds himself instead being opened up in previously unimaginable ways by the love of a woman who truly wants to know his heart-a love that nearly unravels him.

Portraying this extraordinary unfolding of a solitary, principled man is two-time Academy Award® nominee Michael Fassbender in what is his most intimate and humane role to-date. Though he has riveted audiences as the sexually-compulsive Brandon in "Shame," as the mutant Magneto in the "X-Men" series, as a cruel slave owner in "12 Years a Slave" and as the ingenious leader of Apple in "Steve Jobs," this role was unlike any other he has tackled before.

That difference excited Derek Cianfrance. He explains, "I've been absolutely hypnotized and blown away by Michael's presence on the screen for years. What always stood out to me was how smart he is, how his brain works on screen-it is larger-than-life. But with this character, I wanted to see the heart of Michael Fassbender-the heart that goes along with his physicality and intelligence. I wanted him to put his soul and vulnerability on the screen. I wanted to see the battle between Michael's heart and Michael's mind."

Cianfrance continues, "When we met, I asked Michael if he had ever been in love, and when he laughed at me and said 'yes,' I felt an instant kind of brotherhood with him. TAnd there was really no one else at that point. I felt it was destiny for him to be Tom. Tom is like a boiling pot of water with a lid on it. On the surface, he is very contained, but underneath there is a storm brewing."

And Fassbender was drawn to that storm as well; drawn to a man who has an almost urgent need to be decent in the wake of war's amorality, even more so when he falls in love. "Reading the book and script, I was impressed by Tom's principles, loyalty and strength of character," Fassbender says. "He's a stoic, honest man, but he's also a man trying to mend himself. He's carrying all these mental scars from combat, yet when he meets Isabel, her freshness and innocence motivate him to take a chance on opening his heart."

"The Light Between Oceans" is driven by the passionate performances of its cast, but the foundation of those performances is the film's authentic recreation of an evocative place and time. Director Derek Cianfrance wanted to immerse viewers in the primal atmosphere of Janus Rock with its harsh beauty and tempestuous weather, as well as the parochial small towns of Western Australia still reeling, both psychologically and socially, from World War I.

As for what Cianfrance hopes audiences will take away from this journey, he summarizes, "I hope people come away having experienced an undeniable love story, a classic fable in which love and truth battle each other. And hopefully they'll leave the theatre debating with each other about who they most identify with and about who made the right choices and why."

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The Art Of Adaptation: Bringing The Light Between Oceans To The Big Screen

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A film about love, truth and the secrets people keep in relationships, and what happens when those secrets are exposed to the light of day. The best-selling novel that swept readers away with its t...

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The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman

'This is the story of right and wrong, and how sometimes they look the same'

It's 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. Then 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 make that day - as the baby's real story unfolds...

The Light Between Oceans is the stunning debut novel from M.L Stedman which was acquired by Transworld in a nine-way publisher bid. I was lucky enough to meet the author, Margot, at her launch at the London Book Fair and asked her how the fascinating concept for the story developed.

'When I write, I just let a picture or a voice or a sentence come to me, and follow where it leads. For The Light Between Oceans, I closed my eyes, and I could see a lighthouse, and then a woman at the lighthouse. At first I thought maybe the story was about her. I could tell that it was set a long time ago, on an island off Australia. Then quite quickly a man came along, and I knew he was the light keeper and it was really his story. Then a boat washed up, with a dead man, and I discovered there was a baby in it too, so I had to keep writing to see what happened!'

Written over the course of two years from the Spring of 2008 to 2010, Margot explains - quite refreshingly - how there isn't really a 'writing process' as such for her. 'There really isn't such a thing as a 'typical' writing day for me, except insofar as I only write in the daytime - never at night. I'm rather allergic to rules about writing, and chafe against edicts such as 'you must write at least an hour a day' or 'you must plot everything in advance'. My philosophy is 'find out what works for you, and do that: everyone is different'. So I wrote this book on my sofa, in the British Library, in a cottage by the beach in Western Australia, on Hampstead Heath, and anywhere else that felt right.'

But of course, during the course of writing any novel, there has to be good days and bad days. 'The high points during this period were any day on which I got to sit down and just write for as long as I wanted. That's my idea of heaven. The low point was having three irrecoverable hard drive failures on my Mac, and having to piece together my files. Fortunately, after the first one I became obsessive about backing things up. (I'd advise all budding writers to do the same: you'd be amazed how many don't.)' Very wise words indeed.

Although the story is set in the years after the First World War, it never feels as though it is dwelling in the history unnecessarily - and actually reads like a very contemporary novel with real human issues and emotions at the forefront of the narrative throughout. I asked Margot what it was about this particular period of history which appealed to her as the setting for the story. 'It just emerged as the time in which the story was set, rather than being a conscious choice. And it's such a rich period of Australian history that it offered a great deal of scope in exploring themes like right and wrong, loyalty and forgiveness.'

In her narrative, Margot has created wonderful, evocative descriptions of the remote island, Janus Rock, and of life as a lighthouse keeper. I asked her about the research she carried out to create such authenticity. 'As to location, I grew up in Western Australia, so the ocean and light and wild weather and vastness are in my blood. When I was writing, I did spend some time down in the area near where the story is set, just getting the feel of the particular place, and sitting gazing out over the ocean or exploring the dense forests in the area.'

'As to the more technical aspects, I adored researching them. The British Library has some excellent histories of Western Australia's involvement in the Great War, as does the Australian War Memorial, where there's a wealth of original records accessible on line. The stories they tell are plainly told and intensely moving. For lighthouses, I read some fabulous books on the history of their development, and visited West Australian lighthouses. I also went to the Australian National Archives, and trawled the lightkeepers' old logbooks and correspondence files. It was a very peculiar feeling to open the pages of these fragile leather registers, knowing that the person who wrote in them could never have imagined that in the next century, a writer would be looking through them. I felt enormously privileged to read about their daily lives in their own words.'

The characters in The Light Between Oceans are complex and varied; each adding their own perspective to the central dilemma of the novel. Interestingly, Margot views her job as a writer as allowing her characters to emerge, rather than creating them. 'I suppose that because the story evolved organically, without a prior outline, it didn't really feel like I was 'incorporating' the characters - they just came out of the story as it unfolded, so I was 'letting them out' rather than 'putting them in'. I enjoyed just sitting with each of the characters, and really exploring what the world must have looked like to them, whether I agreed with their point of view or not, and seeing how events in which they weren't the central actors still had a profound impact on their lives.'

When asked to describe her writing style, Margot defers to the reader. 'The product of the writing process is up to the reader to decide! In terms of the writing process itself, I would describe it as: instinctive, surprising, and fun.'
Finally, I asked Margot what she is working on next. 'I'm still very much occupied with sending The Light Between Oceans out into the world (I think at last count it's due for publication in more than 25 territories), so I'm not getting much time for writing, but watch this space.'

I certainly will.

By creating an unimaginable dilemma for her main characters, M.L. Stedman has crafted a compelling story and as the fate of the central characters moves towards its surprising conclusion, I couldn't put it down. In our hectic, modern lives, it often feels like a luxury to curl up with a good book, never mind treating ourselves to buy it in the first place. Our time, and money, is precious and we want the investment we make in reading a book, to be worthwhile. Reading The Light Between Oceans was not just time well spent; it was time thoroughly enjoyed. And I, for one, feel all the richer for having read it.

Find out more about the book at www.facebook.com/lightbetweenoceans
and on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rarrchwFb7E

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'This is the story of right and wrong, and how sometimes they look the same' It's 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.

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MANHATTAN (CN) - "The Light Between Oceans" barely flickered at the box office, but an American writer says the film and the book on which it was based ripped off his original screenplay.

Adapted for the silver screen last year, from a 2012 book with the same title, "The Light Between Oceans" is a romantic period drama about a childless couple who reach a moral crossroads when a rowboat containing a newborn baby and a dead man washes ashore.

Michael Fassbender stars in the film, which made roughly $24 million on a $20 million budget.

Joseph Nobile, of New Jersey, hit the filmmakers and author Margot Louise Watts with a copyright complaint on Jan. 26, telling a federal judge in Manhattan that the story is the same as a screenplay he's been working on for at least a decade.

Ironically, the writer Nobile accuses of stealing his screenplay is a former intellectual-property lawyer.

The complaint notes that Watts, who published her book under the penname M.L. Stedman, worked in-house for Diageo, one of the world's biggest alcohol manufacturers, to pursue writing.

While studying creative writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, according to the complaint, one of Watts' instructors was Jeremy Sheldon, a script reader for Miramax and Working Title.

Nobile says both companies received copies of his screenplay, originally called "The Rootcutter" and subsequently retitled "A Tale of Two Humans."

Watts is famously secretive of her background, Nobile notes, but he says that she has let slip that she hired a writing coach and went on a creative-writing vacation in Greece.

"Sheldon ran creative writing vacations in Greece in that same time period," the complaint states.

Nobile says it is at least reasonably possible "that Watts obtained access to Nobile's screenplay directly from Sheldon, or indirectly from other Birkbeck faculty who obtained the screenplay from Sheldon, enabling her to copy from it."

"This inference is further strengthened by Watts' evasive and secretive behavior, notable for a first-time author of an acclaimed novel," the complaint states.

Citing the similarities between his story and Watts', Nobile notes that are that both involve "desperate childless couple longing for a baby" on remote storm-swept islands.

Nobile set his story on an island off the coast of Ireland, but Australian-born Watts put her characters in a lighthouse island off the coast of Australia.

The couples in both stories had suffered multiple stillbirths, and the wives are still lactating when "destiny" intervenes. Whereas the child in Watts' story washes ashore in a boat with a dead man, her father, Nobile has the mother die in labor after her boat washes ashore.

Though the complaint says Watts' book sold more than 23 million copies, a spokesman for publishing house Simon & Schuster said the number was closer to 2.3 million.

"It is, unfortunately, all too common for successful books to attract unfounded claims, and this suit has no merit whatsoever," Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg said in an email. "Neither M.L. Stedman nor anyone at Scribner or Simon & Schuster Inc. had any knowledge of the plaintiff or his screenplay until he asserted this claim, and we are confident that our defense will prevail."

Nobile said he became aware of the similarities between the stories - which he admits differ in the endings - when a cousin told him about the trailer for the 2016 movie "The Light Between Oceans."

In addition to Watts and her publishers, Nobile's complaint takes aim at the Walt Disney Co., a DreamWorks subsidiary and Amblin Partners.

Though the lawsuit paints a nefarious view of Watts shying away from publicity, she talked about striking a chord with readers in a 2012 interview with Goodreads. "The story was universal - readers from pretty much any culture or county could engage with the issues it raised," she said.

In that interview Watts talked about how she began writing her story after she "closed her eyes and saw a lighthouse." She said she read through old logbooks in the Australian National Archives and visited lighthouses for further inspiration.

Representatives for Disney and Simon & Schuster have not returned a request for comment. A representative for DreamWorks II Development Co. - which has since ceased its business distribution relationship with Disney - could not be immediately located for comment.

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Copyright Claim Against 'Light Between Oceans'

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MANHATTAN (CN) - "The Light Between Oceans" barely flickered at the box office, but an American writer says the film and the book on which it was based ripped off his original screenplay.

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If you went along to the recent Perth Writers Festival, you may unknowingly have sat next to an author whose debut novel has sparked an international bidding war.

The fact that lawyer-turned-author M. L. (Margot) Stedman was sitting in the crowd rather than on stage speaks volumes about the very private WA-born novelist.

Though her novel The Light Between Oceans is not due for release until next month, the publishing rights have already been sold around the world and the film rights are being negotiated.

It tells the story of a young lighthouse keeper and his wife living on a remote island off the WA coast who find a boat washed ashore carrying a dead man and an infant.

Stedman cannot explain why her book caused such a furore at the Frankfurt Book Fair last October, where a bidding war was rumoured to involve at least nine British and seven American publishers.

"I wrote this book because I wanted to write the book," she says. "You do a thing for the doing of it and everything else is a bonus."

Rumours place offers for The Light Between Oceans in the high six figures but Stedman is not interested in talking about the details.

Stedman is reluctant to talk about herself at all.

Many readers love to know every intimate detail of their favourite author's life - just look at the celebrity-like status of J. K. Rowling - but on that score fans of Stedman's work will be disappointed.

The novelist grew up in WA, now lives in London and she worked as a lawyer, but that is about all she wants to share of herself.

Sitting in a quiet cafe in Nedlands, Stedman comes across as intelligent, confident and vivacious, which raises the question: why all the secrecy?

"I think the less that readers have my life imposed on them, the more free they are," she says.

"I don't want to talk about stuff like that because I'd like them to experience the book and just the book.

"I just think sometimes readers get it shoved down their throats that this is who it is written by.

"None of it is autobiographical, so it doesn't help the reader."

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If you went along to the recent Perth Writers Festival, you may unknowingly have sat next to an author whose debut novel has sparked an international bidding war. The fact that lawyer-turned-author M. L. (Margot) Stedman was sitting in the crowd rather than on stage speaks volumes about the very private WA-born novelist.

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Firstly, congratulations on the huge local and international success of your debut novel, The Light Between Oceans. Can you start us off by telling us a bit about the book, in particular how the seed of this captivating story began for you?
Thank you! The story emerged out of nowhere, as my stories usually do. I just let a picture or phrase or voice come into my mind, and follow where it leads. When I sat down to write one day, I closed my eyes and saw a lighthouse, then gradually a woman, and I knew it was a long time ago, on an island off Western Australia. Then a man appeared - the lightkeeper. As I wrote, a boat washed up, with a dead body and a crying baby, so I had to keep writing to see what happened, and find out who these people were. For me, what was really extraordinary as I looked back on it was that all the major themes in the book - war, right and wrong, isolation, light and dark, the nature of family, the kindness of strangers - were right there in that opening scene, though I had no idea at the time.

In The Light Between Oceans, Tom and Isabel are grappling with a major moral dilemma, and they each come at it from differing moral compass points. However, the narration doesn't cast judgement and the reader is left to make up their own mind about what they see as right and wrong. Did you ever find it a challenge to stick to a character's truth, even when you may not necessarily agree with their behaviours/actions?
It was definitely easier for me to see things from the point of view of some characters than others, but that's what made the challenge so enjoyable. It was a great exercise in empathy and compassion. And I wanted to invite readers to explore the situation in complete freedom, really weighing it up, examining their own views and how they reached them. I love the fact that readers come to widely different conclusions. I think they can do that because there's little judgment in the text itself.

The title of the book references the point on the coast of Western Australia where the Great Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet - a treacherous and isolated section of water. Can you tell us a little bit about what this represents to you and to the characters in the book?
The theme of duality runs right through the book, and location is a physical manifestation of that duality. It reminds the reader that there's always more than one way of looking at things: without giving away too much about the plot, there are two aspects to the baby's story, and two locations - Janus Rock and Point Partageuse. The two oceans have (or perhaps are) very different characters - the Great Southern Ocean is icy, fierce and treacherous, and the Indian Ocean is warm and calm in comparison. This duality is echoed, too, in the island named after Janus, a Roman god who has two faces looking out in opposite directions. He stands for beginnings and transitions, so his image was often found on doorways and thresholds (the state of 'between' alluded to in the title). The doors of his temple in the Roman Forum were open in times of war and closed in times of peace: Tom retreats from war to find peace in solitude, but is confronted with conflict on a deeper, more intimate scale.

As for the isolation - I found it was a useful way of 'pulling focus', to use a film metaphor. When the characters are isolated from the rest of the world all distractions fall away, and there is nothing to do but concentrate on the dilemma - that goes for the characters and the readers - and it gives the book extra intensity.

Imagery of a scorpion is prominent in the book, both in a memorable scene with Lucy and Tom in Chapter 22 and repeated on the book cover. Can you tell us about why you chose this particular arachnid for that scene and what it may represent for Lucy and for Tom, who eventually kills it?
Again, like the lighthouse, it just turned up. It's literally the 'sting in the tail/tale', and a useful metaphor for the vulnerability of choices born of innocence and ignorance. Isabel sees her choice as innocent and for the best, knowing nothing of the baby's history, but later in the book we discover its devastating consequences. Lucy sees the scorpion as just a fascinating, beautiful creature; she's blissfully ignorant of its poisonous nature. In the case of Tom, I don't want to spoil the plot, so I'll just say that readers may draw parallels between the scorpion scene and his response to the overall dilemma. As for putting it on the cover, that was actually the inspiration of Claire Ward, the wonderful Art Director at Transworld/Random House: I confess I hadn't really focused on it. That said, I think it's a very compact symbol of danger dwelling in beauty.

The Light Between Oceans has an extraordinary universal appeal, and has become a bestseller in many territories. Do you think the theme of morality is a major player in its ability to transcend borders? If not, what are your thoughts on its worldwide appeal?
I was absolutely taken aback at its international success. If I have to find a reason for it, perhaps it's that the core subjects - right and wrong, love and duty, family and community - cross cultural boundaries. I wonder if they do so with more than average ease because the book offers no answers: it leaves the reader with the questions, so there's a lot of work for them to do both while they're reading and once they've finished.

In a past life you were a practicing lawyer, and this seems to be a road well-trodden by other esteemed authors such as John Grisham, Henry Fielding and Georgia Blain. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on why this might be so, or where the correlation may lie?
Writers and lawyers share many attributes, including a facility with language, a natural curiosity, and an ability to marshal facts clearly and persuasively. I believe that to be a good lawyer, you have to be able to see other people's points of view, so it's a natural training in looking at the world through other people's eyes, whether they're your client or, in a novel, your character.

What authors inspired you to write?
I'm not sure any authors inspired me to write, but many inspired me to read. It's impossible to list all my favourite writers here, but a few from formative years and in no particular order are: Greene, Dickens, Fitzgerald, Gide, Wharton, Tolstoy, Wodehouse . . .

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Firstly, congratulations on the huge local and international success of your debut novel, The Light Between Oceans. Can you start us off by telling us a bit about the book, in particular how the seed of this captivating story began for you? Thank you! The story emerged out of nowhere, as my stories usually do.

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Bluey Theme 3: Septimus Potts Non-chronological approach. Historical back story is embedded throughout novel. Increase tension and anxiety within the reader. Better understanding of characters; author is able to include more depth. Flashbacks are used to provide reader with

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During our literature units, I'm always ranting about "perspective." When I do, students assume I am referring to the point of view from which a piece of literature is written. First person, third person, limited, omniscient. That's all fairly simple, but I have come to learn that the higher-order thinking involved in analyzing how the point of view impacts the way a story is read is a different ball of wax for students. In short, it can be difficult.

Because students tend to struggle with the idea that a narrator's perspective is narrow and limited in that he tells the story through his own lens, based on his own experiences, I came up with a lesson that helps illustrate how stories change according to whomever is telling them.

Here is a great exercise I have used with my freshman English students that has really helped drive home the importance of analyzing perspective, and it requires nothing more than a teenager, his or her parents, and an argument.

Talk about a universal theme, right?!

Before every student had access to a laptop, I taught this lesson the old-fashioned way: with paper and pencil. (Did I just date myself?) However you opt to facilitate this activity, the big idea is the same: Our perspective is influenced by our experiences.

Students are instructed to think about a time when they have argued with their parents, or, at the very least, haven't seen eye-to-eye with them. The conflict could be over a misunderstanding, something that was "unfair," or a confusing, misleading situation.

Please note: If a teenager in your class claims he has no firsthand experience with this prompt, he is either lying or he is a robot.

Examples of my students' topics have ranged from them making their parents angry and worried because they missed curfew to students wanting to go somewhere or do something they perceived as harmless, while their parents deemed it inappropriate or dangerous. The basic goal is to choose a topic on which the students' and parents' opinions differ.

Once topics have been chosen (and are school-appropriate, of course!), students make two columns on their paper or iPad or iPod or iWhatever: one to list their feelings, opinions and reactions to the conflict, another to list their parents'. They brainstorm for a few minutes, and once they have at least three solid examples for each, it's time to write.

The students write two paragraphs: The first is from their perspective, written in first person. For the sake of illustration, let's use the topic of a student wanting to go to a party, but his parents have forbid him. In this first paragraph, he tells the story of how he asked to go to the party, how he felt when his parents said no, and details the reasons why he feels he should be allowed to go. He clearly explains things from his perspective: "I made sure my room was clean and my homework was done, and they still told me I couldn't go! I'm responsible and make good choices. I have never been in trouble before. My parents should trust me!" This paragraph obviously supports the student's ideas and opinions and should not read like a list, but more like a retelling of the situation and a descriptive plea to change his parents' mind.

The second paragraph should be written from the parents' perspective, but also in first person. This forces the student inside her parents' heads and requires her to use the previously brainstormed ideas to support Mom and Dad's reasoning for why he should not attend the party: "I know Joe is a good kid, but it's not him I worry about-it's all the other kids who will be there that worry me. Especially that John Doe-he's a real troublemaker. All the parents talk about him!" Students should take care to include their parents' emotions. Again, this paragraph should not be a list of reasons or rebuttals-it should be an extensive look into the fears and rationale of the parents.

Upon completing this writing exercise, students begin to think about how the same scenario can be so different based on varying perspectives. A class discussion about how personal experiences shape our perspective transitions nicely into whatever text you're reading.

Another great activity for analyzing perspective uses the song "Just Give Me a Reason" by P!nk found here. Rather than write their own paragraphs, students will use these lyrics to explicate how the same relationship can be viewed so differently by the two people in it, drawing conclusions about each individual based on his/her lyrics.

Once students begin to recognize how different perspectives can change their experience with a text, an excellent example, albeit advanced for some, of an unreliable narrator is Poe's short story, "The Cask of Amontillado." I've taught this story around Mardi Gras so students understand the chaotic setting of the piece, and everyone always seem to enjoy the insanity that unfolds. Nothing screams "perspective!" like a drunk and a crazy dude.

However you teach it, whatever texts you read, perspective is an integral part of reading, understanding and appreciating literature. What's more is that when a student masters the art of reading texts, he or she can move on to the equally important skill of reading people. Don't ever say we didn't prepare you for the real world, kids. Love, Your English Teachers.

Stephanie Jankowski loves words, hates math and has a penchant for finding the funny in life. An English teacher by trade and smack-talker by nature, you can find more of Stephanie on her blog WhenCrazyMeetsExhaustion.com.

Photo credit: Ian Sane via photopin cc

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Perspective, People! Ideas on Teaching Literature - WeAreTeachers

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During our literature units, I'm always ranting about "perspective." When I do, students assume I am referring to the point of view from which a piece of literature is written. First person, third person, limited, omniscient. That's all fairly simple, ...