By Pippa Lyons -
A family manning a remote island research station. A woman injured, mysteriously washed ashore. A cataclysmic storm brewing on the horizon.
Set on Shearwater, a remote island research station between Tasmania and Antarctica housing the world’s largest seed bank, caretaker Dominic Salter, his three children, and the final remaining researcher are charged with emptying the seeds for transport off the island before it succumbs to the violence of climate change-brought storms and rising sea levels. But then the researcher disappears, comms have been cut, a massive storm is rolling in, and a seriously injured woman has washed ashore. There’s no way off, there’s no line out, there’s no help, and the final ship isn’t due for another seven weeks—who will make it out alive?
Wild Dark Shores moves effortlessly between genres. Part climate thriller, part whodunit/what-actually-is-the-‘it’, part literary fiction, and part nature writing from snippets of the researchers’ work sprinkled throughout the pages, drawing together a compelling narrative that, to me, was really an exploration of grief and loss and love in all their instances large and small. Love that binds and destroys relationships, the loss of a partner, of a child, the grief for who we were, who we could be and who we are forced to become, and the devastation of what we have wreaked upon our planet.
McConaghy’s writing is immersive, painting the stark beauty of Shearwater in vivid detail. The island, and its animal inhabitants, become characters in themselves; majestic yet unforgiving, mirroring the turmoil and tension within the Salt family, the researcher, and the woman.
There are so many books to read in so little time, so seldom do I linger on a book once I have finished it; there is always another waiting to take its place immediately. However, since finishing Wild Dark Shore two days ago I find my mind frequently slipping back to it and unable to start on the next despite the overwhelmingly tall tower of other books waiting, looming over me. They might be waiting a while.
Five out of five stars.
