"Sticks and stones" had it wrong: words can hurt you, as elementary school teacher Jon Wanamaker learns while working to preserve a dying language. Already mired in the aftermath of a failed marriage, Jon is suddenly tormented by ghostly, ribbon-like sentences that stream across his vision, wrenching him in and out of consciousness.

But are they simply hallucinations, or something more, as the sniper searching for him—and the ex-wife he still loves—suspect?

The startling answers promise to unlock new frontiers… if Jon can avoid falling prey to the Mother Tongue.