After the tragic death of her husband and son, Abigail Harker leaves her career as a lexicographer in Boston to become the caretaker of an old lighthouse on an island off the coast of North Carolina. Arriving on Chapel Isle in the off-season, Abigail imagines she will find peace and solitude while coming to know the island her late husband loved as a child. However, things are not quite as she imagines. The quaint lighthouse turns out to be a dilapidated wreck with a sordid past; the ambience proves to be both prickly and mysterious; and her memories of the life she left behind follow Abigail everywhere. At times melancholy but mostly life-affirming, The Language of Sand brings the island community to life in this book-club-friendly read that will have readers itching for a sequel.