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Coming March 2025
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
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. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.
But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all 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 breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.
A Most Anticipated Book (Goodreads, BookPage, Publishers Weekly, WNYC, The Nerd Daily, Zibby’s Highlights)
“Riveting… McConaghy’s descriptions of nature’s glory and terror are galvanic, the psychological struggles wrenching, the suspenseful action spectacularly choreographed. McConaghy has attained new heights of intensity and lacerating ecological conviction in this complexly plotted, tragic, and all-consuming tale of the battle to survive.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“[A] terrific thriller…McConaghy keeps readers guessing…McConaghy writes about both nature and human frailty with eloquent generosity. Readers won’t want to leave behind the imagined world of pain and beauty that McConaghy has conjured.”
—Kirkus (starred review)
“Sub-Antarctic noir meets a love letter to the rapidly disappearing wild world in McConaghy’s latest…As lush as it is taut with tension, this novel is filled with both the joys and ravages of nature.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“Urgent…McConaghy ratchets up the tension as the characters’ paranoia and mutual suspicion increases and their motives are revealed…McConaghy blends entertainment with a sobering message about conservation and the impacts of geographic isolation.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Remarkable…Raising issues of love and family and sacrifice, Wild Dark Shore is a beautiful examination of hope in the face of certain destruction.”
—Shelf Awareness
“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, international bestselling author of Burial Rites
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INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Amazon Editors' Pick for Best Book of the Year in Fiction, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year, and the #1 IndieNext Pick for August 2020
"Visceral and haunting" (New York Times Book Review) · "Hopeful, true and affecting" (Washington Post) · "Powerful, vibrant, unique" (Los Angeles Times) · "Thrilling" (TIME) · "Tantalizingly beautiful" (Elle) · "Suspenseful, atmospheric" (Vogue) "Aching and poignant" (Guardian) · "Gripping" (The Economist) · "Gorgeous" (Literary Hub)
Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny’s history begins to unspool―a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime―it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny's dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption?
Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations is an ode to a disappearing world and a breathtaking page-turner about the possibility of hope against all odds.
Published in over 20 languages around the world and soon to be adapted for film.
Instant New York Times Bestseller
Instant Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Instant Washington Post Bestseller
Instant Indie Bestseller
#1 IndieNext Pick
Book of the Month Club Selection
Winner of the Australian Independent Booksellers Fiction Award 2022
A Most Anticipated Book (Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, Good Morning America, Bustle, Scientific American, Publishers Weekly, Sydney Morning Herald, BookRiot, Thrillist, PopSugar, AARP)
From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a gorgeous and pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.
Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.
Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the main suspect?
Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge.
Praise for Once There Were Wolves – the #1 Indie Next Pick for August 2021
A Most Anticipated Book (Newsweek, Scientific American, Sydney Morning Herald, BookRiot, Thrillist, PopSugar, AARP)
“Blazing…Visceral…As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Intense, emotional and rich with beautifully rendered prose, McConaghy’s novel is a powerful meditation on humanity, nature and the often frightening animalistic impulses lurking within us all…Another triumph for a rising fiction star, offering an intensely realized world for readers to get lost in.”—BookPage (starred review)
“Vividly realized… Gorgeously rendered…A story full of subtle surprises…This is a stunner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Poetic…A lovely, gripping tale about a world that could be our own.”—Kirkus (starred review)
“This heart-pounding novel digs into the complex relationships between humans—and the creatures with which we share the natural world.”
—Newsweek
“Suspenseful and poignant…[Inti’s] story unfolds as a meditation on the social and scientific consequences of influencing ecosystems, while reminding us that humans and animals alike can break our hearts.”
—Scientific American
“Lyrical, captivating, thought-provoking and thrilling, this immersive read will capture your attention from the first page.”
—Good Morning America
“Bold…A heartfelt and earnest novel.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Gripping and often very moving…Despite the darkness and pain at the heart of McConaghy’s novel, it is not a bleak book. Instead, it bears within it an argument about the possibility of change. Recognizing the presence of other ways of being, of other minds and presences enlarges us, affording us a glimpse of the unknowable.”
—The Sydney Morning Herald
“Far more than an old wolves’ tale. Instead, it illustrates what it’s like to be an outsider—from both a human and animal perspective—and the level of healing and acceptance it takes from within to be accepted and to accept yourself.”
—Electric Literature
“The Australian author made waves with last summer's Migrations, a meditation on climate change and loneliness, and returns with a new story set in the Scottish Highlands, where two twin sisters join a team attempting to reintroduce a pack of wolves to their natural surroundings.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Spellbinding…Charlotte McConaghy has once again created a world where we must balance trust and fear, humanity and nature.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books
“From the author of 2020's gorgeous Migrations comes a similarly earth-shattering tale of humanity's influence on the natural world.”
—Thrillist
“Urges us to take a lesson from the wolves, and learn to lean on one another.”
—BookRiot
“A lyrical novel with a wild heart.”
—PopSugar
“A moving, moody story by the author of the 2020 novel Migrations.”
—AARP
“McConaghy infuses Inti’s adventures with ravishing descriptions of the landscape and the ‘infinite mysteries of wolves’… McConaghy's richly plotted tale of suspense and psychological insight poses provocative questions about predators and humanity's impact on Earth.”
—Booklist
“This poetic and atmospheric novel is a mystery, a celebration of wolves, and a tribute to those who work to rewild our landscapes.”
—EcoLit Books
“McConaghy excels at conveying the sensuous experience of nature and the emotions it provokes: wonder at its majesty, sorrow at its destruction. Unflinching in its view of the harm humans inflict on the environment and on each other—and insisting on the interconnectedness of the two—Once There Were Wolves delivers a powerful call for hope in the face of catastrophe.”
—Shelf Awareness
"Once There Were Wolves is one of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read, which you do as slowly as you can because you want to savor it, except the pages keep turning furiously because the story is so thrilling and so powerful. It’s also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read. I will be enthusiastically recommending this novel to everyone forever. Charlotte McConaghy has cemented herself as a sure-thing, must-read writer for me."—Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
"So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact."—Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)
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