#SoundtrackSaturday: Chopin & Bach in The Light Between Oceans

"Cricket's no game for a girl. Now, come on. The Chopin étude," she would breeze on, opening a book tattooed with pencil marks and small smudged-chocolate fingerprints. - p. 76

Isabel opened the wrapping and found Bach's Goldberg Variations.
"Tom reckons you can play this sort of caper with your eyes shut." - p. 80

Soundtrack Saturday is a meme hosted by The Hardcover Lover. I've always wanted to join in something book-music-related so I decided to just join in this existing meme and sort of make my own tweaks to the rules.

There is a Goodreads Readalong happening right now for the very popular book The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. The main character, Isabel, has a piano -- yes, way up in that remote lighthouse in Australia -- and she had played since she was a child. Two composers she played were Chopin and Bach. Enjoy!


More:

• Wikipedia - Vladimir Ashkenazy 
• Wikipedia - Tatiana Nikolayeva

Synopsis of The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman: 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’s 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’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, 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’s 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.

M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss. The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.

*I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher for review consideration and participation in the Goodreads Readalong.

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