May 2026

In 2012, I read THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS and loved the power of M. L. Stedman’s writing. I did not think it would be 14 years until I could read something from her again. I listened to A FAR-FLUNG LIFE and enjoyed the narration by Lewis Fitz-Gerald. I constantly found myself swept up in the storytelling.

The book is set on the MacBride family’s sheep station, the million-acre Meredith Downs in Western Australia, which has been in the family for generations. It’s the kind of place where the weather is charted as much as the number of sheep. The story begins in the 1950s and follows the family as they cope with an accident on a remote road in 1958. Phil and his oldest son, Warren, are killed. His youngest son, Matt, is hospitalized with severe injuries, memory loss, and the new burden of being the only man in the family. Ironically the accident occurred when Phil swerved to avoid a kangaroo, which he told people never to do. There is a bit of poignancy in that. A momentary decision and its consequences come up again and again in this book. 

So Phil’s wife, Lorna, and his daughter, Rosie, work to keep things going until Matt is strong enough to return to work. A young Englishman comes to the ranch in time to help out, and he brings a world that the others do not know about to this wilderness home. Something happens one night in a storm in a moment of inebriated haze, which will be tough for many to read. Going forward, though it is unknown to those who are there at the time, life will take a very different course. 

Tragedy is written into this book as much as the importance of family and belonging to a place. We come to know so many characters who become a part of the MacBrides’ lives. They include Pete Peachy, who has his own stories to hide and tell, and a young woman who works for a mining company who is dispatched to see what treasures may be under the earth of Meredith Downs.

The writing is what makes this story so beautiful. In another’s hands, it may not be. It’s hauntingly wonderful. With all that I read, I am surprised at the details that I still remember about THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS. I can see that happening again with A FAR-FLUNG LIFE.