Ellen Block

After she seeks refuge from the death of her husband and son by taking a position as the caretaker of a lighthouse on a secluded North Carolina island, Abigail Harker soon discovers that the lighthouse may be as haunted as she is with memories of her family. By the author of The Lightning Rule. Original.

The Language of Sand

Nadat haar man en haar zoontje zijn omgekomen bij een brand, weet Abigail niet hoe ze verder moet. In een poging alles te vergeten, wordt ze vuurtorenbewaarder op een afgelegen eiland. Maar haar buitengewone nieuwe buren, een dreigende orkaan en de inbraken die de kleine gemeenschap teisteren zorgen ervoor dat Abby haar gevoelens wel onder ogen moet zien. De taal van het zand is een meeslepende roman met een innemende hoofdpersoon over het universele thema verlies. Ellen Block is geboren en getogen in Summit, New Jersey. Voor haar eerdere werk ontving ze de Hopwood en Haugh Prizes for Fiction, de Drue Heinz Literature Prize en de Michener-Copernicus Fellowship. Ze schrijft momenteel het vervolg op De taal van het zand.

De taal van het zand

A magical novel that unravels one of life’s greatest mysteries—how to go on after a devastating loss—through the power of words and their ability to heal, to transform, and to touch the heart. Luck: an event that could be for good or ill, depending on your interpretation. As a lexicographer, Abigail Harker has always taken refuge in the meaning of words. But when fate erases in one tragic moment what she loves the most, the very foundations of her life vanish. Abigail retreats to Chapel Isle, a secluded island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. As caretaker of a run-down lighthouse, she hopes to redefine herself. But as a resident soon remarks, “If you came to Chapel Isle for normal, you came to the wrong place.” For on Chapel Isle, no one can be neatly defined. From a scientific genius to the feuding fishermen’s wives, from a handsome hothead to the ghost said to be haunting the lighthouse, everyone is struggling to find meaning where meaning seems lost. And when a series of mysterious crimes strikes the island, Abigail finds that she must face down her deepest fears if she is to save herself, her neighbors, and the new life she’s unexpectedly come to cherish.

A Novel

Will McGrath

AIDS has devastated communities across southern Africa. In Lesotho, a quarter of adults are infected. In Infected Kin, Block and McGrath argue that AIDS is fundamentally a kinship disease, examining the ways it transcends infected individuals and seeps into kin relations and networks of care.

Orphan Care and AIDS in Lesotho

Infected Kin

AIDS has devastated communities across southern Africa. In Lesotho, where a quarter of adults are infected, the wide-ranging implications of the disease have been felt in every family, disrupting key aspects of social life. In Infected Kin, Ellen Block and Will McGrath argue that AIDS is fundamentally a kinship disease, examining the ways it transcends infected individuals and seeps into kin relations and networks of care. While much AIDS scholarship has turned away from the difficult daily realities of those affected by the disease, Infected Kin uses both ethnographic scholarship and creative nonfiction to bring to life the joys and struggles of the Basotho people at the heart of the AIDS pandemic. The result is a book accessible to wide readership, yet built upon scholarship and theoretical contributions that ensure Infected Kin will remain relevant to anyone interested in anthropology, kinship, global health, and care. Supplementary teaching materials are available at: https://www.csbsju.edu/sociology/anthropology-teaching-resources/useful-resources/infected-kin-teaching-resources

Ellen Block

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