Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (2025 fiction)

Even though I read the blurb, I wasn’t expecting the scope or the true subject of this novel. Dominic Salt and his three children (two teenagers, one nine-year-old) are caretakers of Shearwater, an island near Antarctica. The research station and seed repository located there are now closed and have been abandoned due to rising seawater, and the family’s last task is to select the seeds that can be rescued when they are picked up by a naval vessel in a few weeks. The island has become more unhospitable by the day, and unexpectedly, a boat breaks up on the shore, delivering a woman who is more dead than alive. While badly injured, Rowan is brought back to life and slowly becomes part of the family. She discovers that the research station is no longer manned, that the power to the island is iffy, and all of the communications equipment has been sabotaged, so all she can do is wait for the ship that will pick up the family weeks hence. Soon, they discover that a wealth of secrets are being kept on both sides. Can they trust each other? Where did the researchers go? Who damaged the radio equipment? The story is full of twists and turns as Rowan tries to find the answers to those questions, and Dominic tries to find out who she is and why she was coming there to begin with. The children are stars of the novel: Raff, the oldest, who studies whale songs, Fen who lives among the seals, and Orly, the 9-year- old, who despairs of leaving even one of the seeds behind. Reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing and The Light Pirates, this book is full of amazing facts about nature and its potential destruction. It is also a story about the durability of family in a world where it is becoming more difficult to survive.

Reviewed by Ginger Russell