{"id":2018,"date":"2013-05-07T07:49:14","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T12:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2018"},"modified":"2013-05-07T08:00:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T13:00:32","slug":"two-memorable-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=2018","title":{"rendered":"Two Memorable Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheI recently enjoyed reading the two following books for the book discussion group I belong to.\u00a0 Both are by Australian authors, and both of were long listed for this year’s Miles Franklin Award, but neither made the short list.\u00a0 However, that doesn’t diminish their stature,\u00a0and both relate to the impact of WorldWar I on our newly independent nation.\u00a0 Although ‘independent’, Australia was still part of The British Empire, and as such rushed to support the allied war effort by supplying troops representing a large percentage of our young men.\u00a0\u00a0That war was brutal\u00a0leading to people feeling it must be the war to end wars.\u00a0 It didn’t of course.<\/p>\n

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The Light Between<\/strong> Oceans<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 byM.L. Stedman<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0Through\u00a0the central character Tom,\u00a0this interesting story\u00a0provides a sensitive look at how WWI affected men who returned home ‘unscathed’ , that is, appearing to be of\u00a0sound limb perhaps,\u00a0but very emotionally\u00a0disturbed by their war experiences.\u00a0 Tom’s insight into his own state of mind leads him to expect to take a long time to heal.\u00a0Many returning soldiers had little understanding of this and found little true understanding among people around them of how war scars psyches as well as bodies.<\/div>\n
Quoting from the blurb on GoodReads:\u00a0 “After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day\u2019s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby\u2019s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
\nTom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom\u2019s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them”.<\/div>\n
Lucy’s natural mother, still lives in the small coastal town where Isabel grew up, from which the annual supply boat to the lighthouse is based, from where the boat with baby and father aboard set out,\u00a0and she\u00a0has\u00a0never accepted that her daughter\u00a0could be, indeed most likely is, dead.\u00a0 Gradually, and its complicated (but at no time too complicated to follow) she learns that her husband died but that the baby was rescued.\u00a0 As the story unfolds further we learn a lot about her life and how the\u00a0father and baby\u00a0came to be\u00a0adrift at sea in a boat, and the incedible luck that the boat washed up on the rock\/island it did.\u00a0 The lives of all people surviving this strange but interesting\u00a0set of events are\u00a0set totally upside down, at times incredibly tragically,\u00a0however the whole saga ends with a note of hope.\u00a0 Like a richly woven multicoloured brocade – this book is enjoyable on so many levels, including vignettes of 1920’s Australian social values, the role of isolation and communication in our nation building era, and\u00a0fascinating accounts of the now vanished way of life of the lighthouse keepers around our coasts, and so much more.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a fantastic first novel. and Margot Stedman’s next work will be eagerly awaited by many.<\/div>\n
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We also recently discussed Tom Kenneally’s\u00a0 book, The Daughters of Mars <\/strong><\/span>which I thoroughly enjoyed. as did most others in the group.\u00a0 It’s an intriguing story\u00a0of fiction based on actual accounts in letters and wartime diaries of several Australian soldiers and nurses nurses involved in Egypt, Greece, France and UK\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n

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\nQuoting again from GoodReads’ blurb:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>“From the acclaimed author of Schindler\u2019s List<\/em>, the epic, unforgettable story of two sisters from Australia, both trained nurses, whose lives are transformed by the cataclysm of the first World War. In 1915, two spirited Australian sisters join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father\u2019s farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Used to tending the sick as they are, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first near Gallipoli, then on the Western Front.\u00a0 Yet amid the carnage, Naomi and Sally Durance become the friends they never were at home and find themselves courageous in the face of extreme danger, as well as the hostility they encounter from some on their own side. There is great bravery, humor, and compassion, too, and the inspiring example of the remarkable women they serve alongside. In France, where Naomi nurses in a hospital set up by the eccentric Lady Tarlton while Sally works in a casualty clearing station, each meets an exceptional man: the kind of men for whom they might give up some of their precious independence\u2014if only they all survive.”I’m quite a Tom Kenneally fan from way back and this was one of his best.<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently enjoyed reading the two following books for the book discussion group I belong to.\u00a0 Both are by Australian authors, and both of were long listed for this year’s Miles Franklin Award, but neither made the short list.\u00a0 However, that doesn’t diminish their stature,\u00a0and both relate to the impact of WorldWar I on our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[203],"class_list":["post-2018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-great-books-read"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-wy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}