Wild Dark Shore
'A triumph . . . Breathtaking.' – HANNAH KENT
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4.4 • 235 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK FOR NOVEMBER 2025!
‘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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
When a strange woman washes up on their isolated island, a family is forced to confront their deepest issues in this lush literary thriller. Widower Dominic Salt and his three bereft children are preparing to leave their lonely island near Antarctica, where they’ve been caretakers to a vital global seed reserve. But when a woman named Rowan washes ashore, she discovers that the Salts’ story isn’t quite as straightforward as they present it—and the Salts soon learn that Rowan has secrets of her own. Mixing climate science with the moody atmospherics of a gothic thriller, Australian author Charlotte McConaghy creates a profoundly moving work of psychological suspense. Setting her complex tale in a gorgeous, threatened setting and letting each of her distinctive characters voice their own chapters, she creates a world we could quickly sink into. Wild Dark Shore had us in tears even as we grappled with the mysteries at its core.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian writer McConaghy (Migrations) depicts in this urgent if uneven saga a family's attempt to survive on a desert island in a near future ravaged by climate change. After fleeing Australia eight years earlier due to fires, floods, and other natural disasters, Dominic Salt lives with his three children on Shearwater Island, a remote former research outpost between Tasmania and Antarctica, where he tends a seed vault meant to replenish global food supplies. His wife, Claire, died before the voyage, and he still has conversations with her in his mind. During a storm, his oldest daughter, 17-year-old Fen, rescues a woman named Rowan who washes ashore following a shipwreck. Radio contact with the outside world is impossible, as all the island's communication systems have been mysteriously destroyed, and it turns out that Rowan's missing husband, Hank, was the team leader of the island's research station. McConaghy ratchets up the tension as the characters' paranoia and mutual suspicion increases and their motives are revealed, though she scuttles the momentum with predictable romantic subplots, and a late-stage plot twist strains credulity. For the most part, though, McConaghy blends entertainment with a sobering message about conservation and the impacts of geographic isolation. Readers of climate fiction ought to check this out.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
A thought provoking story that needs to be read by all.
Poetic and Bittersweet
Beautifully written and quietly absorbing, this book hooked me from the opening chapters. Some of the botanical detail felt slow at times, but it ultimately tied meaningfully into the story. A thoughtful, emotional read that stayed with me.
Excellent
Beautiful and poetic. Really enjoyed.