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I feel bereft after finishing Wild Dark Shore, a contender for the novel of the year and even the book of the year, I'm certain about that and it's only January. It could be a recency bias, but I loved this even more than Migrations, McConnaghy’s first adult novel.

Set on Shearwater, a fictional remote island between Tasmania (a real SE island/state of Australia) and Antarctica, the novel is centred around Dominic Salt and his three children, Raff, 18, Fen, 17 and Orly, 9 years old. Dominic is the caretaker on this island, he’s been raising his children by himself for 9 years after the death of his wife.

One day, a woman washes up on the island. She’s barely alive, broken and slashed by the water and the rocks. This event doesn’t make sense, no boats are coming that way, so the hows and whys ensue. The four of them take care of Rowan who recovers slowly.

The four now five people are the last remaining humans on the island. They're expecting the rescue boat in a few months. You see, the island is sinking and they're trying to save precious seeds held within the seed bank, which is defrosting and sinking.

McConnagy has created such extraordinary characters. They’re all different, flawed, interesting �� hard to forget. Rowan herself is mysterious, obstinate, and lost in more ways than one.

McConnaghy beautifully unpeels the many layers of each character, they’re all dealing with grief and loss, loneliness and desperation. Other important characters are nature, the island, the animals, and the weather. It wouldn’t be a McConnaghy novel if one of the most important themes weren't climate change and its dire consequences.

But among all the realistic gloom and doom, there’s love and hope.

Congratulations and thanks to Charlotte McConaghy for giving us such a beautiful novel.

A must-read novel!

I've received this advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review. Many thanks to Penguin Random House Australia for the opportunity to read and review this magnificent novel.