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y separately published work icon The Lightkeeper's Wife single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 The Lightkeeper's Wife
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Elderly and in poor health, Mary fulfils her wish to herself to live out her last days on Bruny Island with only her regrets and memories for company. A long time ago, her late husband was the lighthousekeeper on Bruny, and she'd raised a family on the wild windswept island, until terrible circumstances forced them back to civilisation. The long-buried secret that has haunted her for decades now threatens to break free and she is hoping to banish it once and for all before her time is up.

'But secrets have a life of their own, and as Mary relives the events that led up to the shattering revelation, she realises she needs to trust a later generation to put things right. As she steadily weakens, she imposes herself on the island's ranger, Leon, who is reluctant to become nursemaid to Mary and resentful that he appears to have little choice in the matter. He has problems of his own and the last thing he needs is another drain on his time.

'Mary's adult children are respectively outraged, non-committal and sympathetic, but no amount of coaxing, pleading or threats will shake her resolve. Her youngest son Tom loves Bruny as much as his mother does, and can understand her primal connection to that wild island, a place of solitude, healing and redemption for them both.

'Years before Tom had spent a winter working on a base in Antarctica and had returned from that empty loneliness to find his marriage over and his life destroyed. Not for nothing do Antarctic regulars call that gruelling experience The Division of Broken Marriages and Shattered Lives. Still wounded, Tom lives a simple life in Hobart, unable and unwilling to make real connections with people in case he gets hurt again. But then he meets Emma, newly returned from Antarctica and as open and welcoming as Tom is not. Will Tom be healed by Emma's interest, or come to terms with his first trip there?

'As Mary's time winds down, both she and Tom must face their pasts in ways they cannot even begin to imagine. And Mary finds that the script she's written to the end of her life has taken on a few twists of its own. The Lightkeeper's Wife is a moving and redemptive story of love, loss and family, and what we have to do to live the best kind of life.' (From the publisher's website.)

Notes

  • Launched at the National Library of Australia, 19 March 2011.
  • Dedication: For my grandma Rhoda Emmy Vera Viggers 1912-2009

    an inspirational and compassionate woman

  • Epigraph: My life was wide and wild,

    and who can know my heart?

    There in that golden jungle

    I walk alone. -Judith Wright From A Human Pattern : Selected Poems

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2011 .
      image of person or book cover 486899671532137354.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 387p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: February 2011.
      ISBN: 9781741759143
    • Crows Nest, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Allen and Unwin , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 8933442396101019519.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 402p.
      Note/s:
      • Published January 2019.

      ISBN: 9781760875138
Alternative title: Il Colore Del Mare in Tempesta
Language: Italian
    • Rome,
      c
      Italy,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Newton and Compton ,
      2012 .
      image of person or book cover 5827314762705158743.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 416p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 26th April 2012.
      ISBN: 9788854137271

Other Formats

  • Braille.
  • Dyslexic edition.
  • Large print.

Works about this Work

To the Lighthouse Lyn Mills , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 27 March 2011; (p. 46)
In Short : Fiction Kerryn Goldsworthy , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 March 2011; (p. 38)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Fiction Reviews Adair Jones , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 5 - 6 March 2011; (p. 24)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Untitled Shelley Orchard , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 26 February 2011; (p. 27)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Landscape of the Imagination Diane Stubbings , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 12 February 2011; (p. 23)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Untitled Sharon Athanasos , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , Summer 2010-2011 vol. 90 no. 5 2010; (p. 33)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Landscape of the Imagination Diane Stubbings , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 12 February 2011; (p. 23)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Untitled Shelley Orchard , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 26 February 2011; (p. 27)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
Fiction Reviews Adair Jones , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 5 - 6 March 2011; (p. 24)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
In Short : Fiction Kerryn Goldsworthy , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12-13 March 2011; (p. 38)

— Review of The Lightkeeper's Wife Karen Viggers , 2011 single work novel
To the Lighthouse Lyn Mills , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: Sunday Canberra Times , 27 March 2011; (p. 46)
Last amended 17 Mar 2021 10:22:03
Settings:
  • Bruny Island, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
  • Hobart, Southeast Tasmania, Tasmania,
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