Charlotte McConaghy is my go-to novelist for works about man’s relationship with nature, and by extension, each other. We resolve internal conflicts and griefs through the natural world, battle our inner demons, find relief from the manmade and technological, seek the spiritual and peace. Whether it is the astounding journey of the arctic tern in Migrations (https://www.margueritereads.com/home/migrations-by-charlotte-mcconaghy?rq=charlotte%20mcconaghy), or the conflict over the reintroduction of wolves in the Scottish Highlands in Once There Were Wolves (https://www.margueritereads.com/home/once-there-were-wolves-by-charlotte-mcconaghy?rq=charlotte%20mcconaghy), McConaghy worries over the impacts of climate change on all flora and fauna, including humans. You need not worry about being preached at; those who believe the changes we see are part of a normal cycle will not feel demonized. Her characters are working out their own issues, while observing, interacting with, or enduring environmental changes. She knows how to tell a good story.

Wild Dark Shore is set on the small subantarctic island of Shearwater, a fictional island based on the real Macquarie Island, midway between Tasmania and Antarctica. Shearwater is home to the breeding grounds of elephant seals, fur seals, penguins and seabirds, like the albatross. McConaghy also places a worldwide seed bank on the island, in an underground vault within the permafrost. It is in this remote, noisy, animal-dominant environment of great storms that our drama unfolds. The ocean is eating away at the island, as each succeeding storm takes away more of the beaches, and the permafrost encasing the seed bank is melting away, gradually increasing the water infiltrating and putting the world’s seeds at risk of washing away. The island is a character in this story, creating hazards and challenges for the people living here.

The Salt family have been caretakers of the island for eight years, but their time here is quickly coming to an end. The seed bank is to be removed, researchers have already left, and the family is mere weeks away from leaving aboard a large ship coming in about 6 weeks. Dominc Salt, the father and caretaker of the island, is a widower with three children: Raff, a sixteen year old boy with ADHD, dyslexia, and anger issues; Fen, his seventeen year old sister, a lover of the wildlife on the island, who has become a woman with no female guidance; and Orly, a nine year old son, an enthusiastic plant lover. All three children are loving, mutually supportive, and grieving for their father. Dominic was emotionally crippled by the death of his wife, and his children are always worried about him. They each grieve their mother’s loss privately, yet the father’s inability to talk about this is gradually splintering the family, in spite of their devotion to one another.

Into this scenario, a private sailboat wrecks on the island during one of the recent storms— the skipper is dead, but his one woman passenger has been washed to shore, badly injured and barely alive. We learn her name is Rowan, and the family do all they can to care for her, help her heal her serious wounds. It is with Rowan’s arrival that we start to feel the secrets held by the family, and by Rowan. Why has this woman traveled alone to this remote place? What is each member of the family not telling her about what has happened here, with the researchers, and the damaged communications equipment? McConaghy expertly lays down meager facts, just enough to pull the reader forward eagerly, needing to know what has happened, what is being hidden.

McConaghy has written an excellent atmospheric page turner, spooling out the facts so sparingly and artfully, keeping you deeply engaged. We grow to care about each of these people, root for them, want this family to survive and thrive and reach a peaceful place and conclusion. This is my favorite new summer novel, to date. Highly recommended, and good for book clubs, too.