Wild Dark Shore

Sam's Review 

I began the year reading Tim Winton's howl of rage, Juice, a story of survival and revenge following environmental collapse. If Winton wrote while in the second stage of grief, Charlotte McConaghy is in a later stage, somewhere between depression and acceptance. For Wild Dark Shore is a book of profound grief: of a family coming to terms with the loss of their mother and, like Juice, of a world coming to terms with its collapse.
 
The Salt family — father Dominic, children Raff, Fen and Orley — seek refuge from their loss on a wild island deep in the Southern Ocean. Dominic is the caretaker for a research base which stores seeds from across the world in the hope of regenerating them once the dust, debris and seas have settled. The children run wild, compensating for their social isolation by having freedom and a connection with nature that’s only possible in such a remote location. When a woman washes up on the beach, barely alive and wearing the brutality of the ocean, the Salts are mystified as to where she’s come from. Dominic is worried about why she’s come. As the children nurse the woman, called Rowan, back to some semblance of health, Dominic’s concern grows about her arrival and intentions, and about the children's growing attachment to her.
 
The plot twists like the seals through the waves, with glimpses of recent events cresting briefly before returning to the deep. Where have the researchers gone? Why is Fen living on the beach? What are the Salts and Rowan concealing from each other? Chapters alternate between the different characters’ perspectives, with Dominic’s and Rowan's written in first person and the children’s in third person limited. These alternations draws a veil of mist over what actually happened, and whether the truth is being concealed by ignorance or choice. Amidst the tension and uncertainty, McConaghy keeps the focus on the characters’ emotions rather on than the rights and wrongs. Like the storm clouds gathering around the island, facts are presented not as black and white but as grey and ever-changing. 
 
In Dominic, McConaghy has created a strong, silent, brooding father without lapsing into a stereotype. His recollections of his wife, his devotion to his children and his struggles to parent them are tender as a bruise. As he reflects: “What I miss is having someone to look at in moment like these, someone who understands not just the talent or cleverness of our children but the wisdom, the immensity of feeling they hold within. Instead I marvel at them alone." But it’s not just Dominic who compelled me; every character feels lived-in and well-worn, their characters as creased as their wind and sunburnt skin. The weather, the nature, the island, are like characters themselves, as important to the Salts and Rowan as these parties are to each other. 
 
If McConaghy was not a nature lover before researching this book, she must be now. Her passion for the flora and fauna is palpable; her despair at our seeming resignation to, or denial about, losing them is heart-wrenching. As she writes: “The banksia will wait, and wait, and wait for this fire to come. Only with flames and smoke licking at everything around it will it open its valves and let its seeds be taken on this hot, burning wind. Only to black ground, only to ash, will the banksia give its seed”. 
 
Can we save the planet? Can people save each other? While there are no easy answers in Wild Dark Shore, no certain outcomes, there is hope, faith, and love; almost too much to bear.  
 
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy is available in store now, priced $34.99.

Publisher's Review

From the New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore.

'At once a gripping mystery, an exquisitely written ode to the natural world, and a taut, psychological thriller, Wild Dark Shore is a triumph. Charlotte McConaghy is masterful in her ability to show the intricate connections between place and the human heart, and Wild Dark Shore shows her at the height of her powers. Breathtaking.' - Hannah Kent

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world's largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, 18 and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, 17, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; 9-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can't stop turning back towards the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn't telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realises Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it's too late-and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of heartstopping twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is a story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.