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| Publshed by Doubleday |
This is a beautifully written first novel, and a great choice for book groups.
Janus is the God of gateways, with two faces so that he can look to the future, as well as the past. He’s also associated with light, and is the namesake of the remote Janus Rock Lighthouse, set between two oceans off the South Coast of Australia.
Previous keepers have struggled to cope with the isolation, but after returning from Gallipoli, Tom Sherbourne is craving peace and structure in his life. He meets his future wife Isabel in Partaguese, the small town nearest the lighthouse. They create their own world on Janus Rock, where the supply boat calls four times a year, and shore leave is only granted every year or two.
Tom, haunted by survivor guilt and his family’s past, is lifted by Isabel, his ‘other half of the sky’. But Isabel becomes fragile and grief stricken following her miscarriages, and it’s the start of a distance between them. When a boat is washed up with a dead man and small crying baby onboard, she persuades Tom to keep the child. As time goes on, they begin to learn more about the child’s background, and the dark event that has lead to what Isabel believes to be a gift from God. With every passing day, Tom regrets more and more the choices they’ve made, and the gulf widens.
It’s very much a book about decisions and consequences, and how difficult it can be to see the right action to take. The Janus Light illuminates the way for others, but not for those on the rock itself. It’s not just a novel of light and dark, it’s more about what happens in the shadows. Anyone reading about each of the main characters will struggle to judge, as they are written with such compassion, and their actions seem understandable in each set of circumstances.
I was completely absorbed in the world of Janus Rock, which took on a real existence, and by the sadness of the lives it touched. This is a book that stays with you long after you’ve put it down.
If you're interested in novels about the world of lighthouses, why not try 'Light' by Margaret Elphinstone? It's based on our Calf of Man in the early 1830s, so also interesting from the point of view of local history. The lighthouse is being looked after by a woman and her family, and Margaret Elphinstone traced a connection with female lighthouse keepers from 1831 back through the centuries to Saint Bridget. Tensions arise when the lighthouse engineer, Robert Stevenson, sends his surveyors there...
Robert Stevenson's grandson, Robert Louis Stevenson said:
'There is scarce a deep sea light from the Isle of Man to North Berwick, but one of my blood designed it'.
