INTERESTING title - What does it mean?

[Brantford]

The Light Between Oceans is a beautifully crafted title but it is also symbolic and could represent different things to different people. Do you have any ideas about what the title means?

[Anna]

This is not my original thought but I read something online about it being the child between two mothers which I thought was an interesting idea. Even if you just take it at face value it is still a lovely image provoking title. Janus Rock is described as being at the meeting place of two great oceans. It paints a beautiful picture.

[Karen]

Well, obviously on it's simplest terms it IS the Lighthouse. Then even without reading Anna's post, my immediate second thought is THE CHILD is the light , in two ways. A light is something you focus on and here she is the source of all the conflict; Lucy is the nexus in the story. Lucy, if you will, is the LIGHT in her parent's lives, all four of them. She brings purpose back to Hannah's life but also to her poor Grandparent's who lost both sons on a battlefield. Think of the horror and anguish these people suffer; the fact that the young men pass without family present and there is no grave to visit. Definitely a novel with thought provoking themes and details that require the reader's attention.

[Karen]

I have to add somewhere, the cover art is fabulous. Another topic of importance in the novel is the stars. Through them we can appreciate the wonder of nature and really how minor the happenings in the characters lives are in the scheme of the universe. But, they are something that Tom and Lucy share, they (Tom/Lucy) are very conscious of their beauty and Supremeness.

[Laura]

It's such a heart-wrenching story that has played at so many of my emotions and I'm still only half-way through the novel. The title to me (so far) represents hope and longing between two shores.

[Kathryn]

I was thinking that the 'light' is the correct choice in the decision they face. The two oceans are the possible choices - one being the 'correct' or moral choice and the other being the incorrect choice. Hadn't really thought too much about the stars Karen. Good observation.

[Karen]

There are so many levels to this story; it is not a simple story-line to be taken at face value. It is multi-layered, with many emotions to be experienced by the reader and possible outcomes. If you think about one choice and how the storyline could develop; then you take the opposite choice and how the story does reveal itself. The title/characters/ storyline can be accepted at it's simplest level or terms, but it is so much more. Subtlety. CRAFT. I cannot wait to see what else M.L. Stedman will reveal to us, her audience with her next book.

[Anna]