Recent Reviews
A Far-Flung Life by M.L. Stedman
Over a decade has passed since the release of M. L. Stedman’s engrossing debut novel, The Light Between Oceans. Her new novel, A Far-Flung Life, was well worth the wait. Stedman writes with empathy and compassion for the moral conundrums her characters face. The novel explores how people live in the aftermath of tragedy, the secrets they hold close, and the ways love and sacrifice can mend wounded souls.
This multigenerational story begins in 1958 in isolated Merideth Downs, a one-million-acre sheep station in Western Australia. Though the land is vast and beautiful, its ever-changing weather patterns and intrusive wildlife are unforgiving. Generations of the McBride family have farmed sheep in this rural area since 1829. Details of every birth, marriage, death, weather event and sheep activitiees are recorded in logbooks, creating a constant sense of the family’s place in both the past and future of the station. The McBride’s closest neighbors live at another sheep station 100 miles away.
Phil and Lorna McBride have three children. One day, while Phil is driving with his two sons, he swerves to avoid a kangaroo and crashes. Phil and his eldest son, Warren, are killed, while the youngest, Matt, is badly injured. Despite their profound grief, Lorna and her daughter, Rosie, try to carry on as they tend to Matt and hope for his survival. Matt does survive, though he doesn’t completely heal.
That fiery crash sparks a series of events that alter the lives of the three remaining McBrides. As the narrator observes, “It’s a reminder that solid ground, unchanged for millions of years, can rearrange itself without warning or permission. You just have to live with the new terrain. Repair what roads and fences you can. Start from scratch for the rest of it.”
At this point in the story, a disturbing plot thread emerges, and those involved must decide how to proceed. Stedman navigates this thread with sympathy, not judgment. In the hands of a less skilled writer, the book might be too difficult to read. But with Stedman’s skill and insight, the story becomes a message of acceptance, understanding, and love. These are good people wrestling with major moral dilemmas and balancing self-sacrifice with happiness.
In addition to the McBride family, other characters harbor secrets that the community considers taboo. Yet these characters are steady, conscientious members of that community, while the few folks who behave badly appear small and petty by comparison.
What Stedman’s novel conveys is that if we knew what another person has endured, we might never judge anyone harshly. The story is filled with instances of good people trying to protect those they love.
As I finished the last page, I felt appreciation for this beautiful book, which shows deep respect and understanding for the complexities of being human. M. L. Stedman’s A Far-Flung Life is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Highly recommend. 5/5
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
This beautiful book, The Light Between Oceans, by M.L. Stedman, illustrates how good people make poor choices. Isabel and Tom Sherbourne, a young married couple, are the lighthouse keepers and only inhabitants on Janus Rock, a tiny island off the coast of Western Australia. Isabel feels grief for the loss of her two brothers who died in WWI. Tom feels guilt that he killed enemy soldiers in the same war. Their quiet life on this island offers them solace.
After three miscarriages, Isabel is bereft; Tom wants to make her pain go away. When a towboat with a dead man and a live baby appear on their little island, they care for the infant and soon consider her their daughter. Isabel represses thoughts about the baby’s birth mother while Tom wants to notify the proper authorities. They both have experienced so much loss; they create a narrative that allows them to live with themselves.
They name the little girl Lucy and the family lives peacefully. As the months pass, Isabel suppresses inconvenient questions, while her husband struggles with the morality of their decision. As the baby grows into a young girl, the guilt is too much for Tom. On a trip back to the mainland, he learns the identity of Lucy’s birth mother, Hannah Roennfeldt. Tom sends Hannah a note letting her know her little girl is safe. Soon, the tidy world that Tom and Isabel have constructed falls apart. Events cascade like a waterfall, and all the characters wrestle with what is best for Lucy. Tom and Isabel each experience betrayals and their old demons push into the present.
I admire this heartbreaking novel because Stedman does not create characters that are good or evil. She creates good people who struggle with conflicting emotions and desires. Her book beautifully explores the complexity of human emotion and the role that past pains have in shaping present choices. All the characters suffer and I feel empathy for each of them.
