Charlotte McConaghy’s novels blend romance and mystery with a focus on ecological topics, from rewilding the Scottish Highlands (Once There Were Wolves) to following the flight of the Arctic tern (Migrations). In Wild Dark Shore, McConaghy turns her attention to a seed bank located on a remote island off the coast of Antarctica.
Widower Dominic Salt and his three children—teens Raff and Fen and their younger brother, Orly—are the lone inhabitants of Shearwater Island. Though it was once populated by botanists and researchers, the rising sea level and raging storms threaten to destroy decades of hard work, and have driven the other scientists away. Before they too depart the island, the Salts have been tasked with packing up the seeds to be taken to safer storage. Each of them is already mourning the loss of their home; for Orly, it’s all about the seeds, for Fen, the seals, and for Raff, the memories of his first love and subsequent heartbreak make the island a bittersweet place. But it’s clear the end of their time on Shearwater won’t go as they imagined after Fen finds a woman named Rowan half-drowned in the ocean and brings her back to the research center.
Though they’re committed to caring for her until she recovers, the Salts are suspicious of Rowan at first. Who is she, exactly, and what brought her to this remote place? But gradually, Rowan proves a balm to past losses, as she listens to Orly’s stories and Fen’s doubts, and helps with projects around the island. The possibility of having a fifth member of their family again is a potent force, especially for Dominic, who is still grieving the loss of his wife. But Rowan has come to the island with a personal agenda, and when she finds a recent grave, she realizes the Salts, too, have things to hide.
McConaghy’s thought-provoking and passionately told novel is about family and trust, but it is also about climate change and the effect of severe weather on our environment and on our lives. Wild Dark Shore asks, what will happen when we risk losing our homes and our neighbors? What will we save and what will we let go of? And how can we start again after the sea takes it all?
