Following the success of his first novel, Sea Room (MacAdam/Cage 2002), Norman Gautreau returns to the coast of New England with his second book, Island of First Light. Island of First Light takes place off the coast of Maine on remote Alabaster Island. Caitlin Bay has come to the island to escape her family, which is falling apart because of her husband's affair and a horrific car accident. She meets Freddy Orcutt, an old-time islander who embraces her as a daughter, and O'zalik Moseley, a Native American who is trying to preserve her family's island heritage while batting her own familial disturbances. Caitlin helps O'zalik publish an account of a tragic event that happened to her people many years before and the islanders become incensed when they are forced to confront the atrocities of their own ancestors. Island of First Light is about human nature and the sense of family that we all search for when faced with adversity. Gautreau brings alive the rugged Maine coast, reflecting a landscape that can be as turbulent as the lives of the people who live there.

This novel about human nature, confronting the past, and the sense of family that everyone searches for when faced with adversity is set along the rugged Maine coast, reflecting a landscape that can be as turbulent as the lives of the people who live there.