A Novel from Another Time

M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans reads like an older book, which isn’t a bad thing.  (What is a bad thing is that the author and her editor didn’t seem to notice the frequent changes in verb tense throughout the novel.  I’m not talking about flashbacks here!  I’m talking about tense changes between one paragraph and the next or one section and the next.  Is that something that would only bother an English teacher?)

Tom Sherbourne, a young man estranged from his family, returns home to Australia after World War I.  Haunted by his experiences in the war, Tom chooses a solitary life on a remote island off the western coast of Australia, where he manages the lighthouse.  But he is not completely alone.  Shortly before he begins his first stretch on the island, he meets a young woman who becomes his wife, his sole companion on Janus Rock.

Though their life together begins happily, an unexpected incident soon brings trouble, conflict, and uncertainty to their relationship.

The Light Between Oceans is a sad story, and one of Stedman’s strengths is her ability to make the reader connect with and sympathize with each of the characters in the book.

 

From War in Vietnam to Peace in Alabama

Thanhha Lai’s book Inside Out & Back Again is a novel in verse for young readers.  Set in 1975, it tells the story of a ten-year-old Vietnamese girl, Ha.

At the start of the year, Ha lives in Saigon with her mother and three older brothers.  (Her father, a soldier in the navy, went to war when Ha was only one.)  As Saigon falls, Ha and her family escape with an uncle aboard a navy ship crowded with people.

By the end of the year, Ha finds herself living in Alabama.  A smart girl, she struggles to learn a new language and make new friends in this foreign land.

Based on the author’s life, Inside Out & Back Again is a piece of historical fiction that is by turns painful, funny, and sweet.

 

Every Day is a New Day

In David Levithan’s Every Day, the main character (known only as “A”) wakes each morning in a new body.  At 16, A can make it through most days without problem; by accessing the memories of the host, A can deal with parents, talk with friends, handle boyfriends or girlfriends, complete homework, take tests, and play sports.

Some days are harder, though—waking in the body of a suicidal host, in the body of a drug addict, in the body of a mean girl.

But the hardest day is the day that A meets Rhiannon and falls in love.  Because A wakes in a new body in a new city every morning, is a real relationship ever possible?

 

Where is Your Life Going?

Jonathan Tropper probably writes better than anyone about men of a certain age.

One Last Thing Before I Go—like Tropper’s previous novel, This is Where I Leave You—centers on a sad, divorced, forty-something man.  Drew Silver (known simply as Silver to his ex-wife, his daughter, and his collection of sad, divorced friends who live at the ramshackle apartment for sad, divorced men) is a failed husband, a failed father, and a failed musician.  (Maybe he’s not a completely failed musician.  He was part of a one-hit wonder band earlier in his career, and he continues to play drums at weddings and bar mitzvahs.)

When Silver’s estranged daughter hits him with a major announcement—followed by another important piece of news from his ex-wife’s fiance—Silver has to decide whether he’s going to take control of his life or continue to let life control him.

One Last Thing Before I Go is a fast, funny (though not quite as laugh-out-loud fun as This is Where I Leave You), poignant book.