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Wild Dark Shore
Paperback

Wild Dark Shore

$34.99
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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, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, 18 and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, 17, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; 9-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can't stop turning back towards the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn't telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realises Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters 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 heartstopping twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is a story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.

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MORE INFO
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Penguin Random House Australia
Country
Australia
Date
4 March 2025
Pages
320
ISBN
9781761620003

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, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, 18 and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, 17, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; 9-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can't stop turning back towards the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn't telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realises Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters 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 heartstopping twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is a story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.

Read More
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Penguin Random House Australia
Country
Australia
Date
4 March 2025
Pages
320
ISBN
9781761620003
 
Book Review

Wild Dark Shore
by Charlotte McConaghy

by Kate McIntosh, Feb 2025

Shearwater, a tiny subantarctic island, is home to millions of penguins and seals, and four humans. It is a wild, isolated, desolate place which also protects the creatures who live there. Or at least it always has, until now. With temperatures rising and storms worsening, the island is at risk, and with it the seed bank originally set up to safeguard the future of humanity.

Dominic Salt and his three children have been caretakers on the island for nine years, ever since his wife died and they fled to the far end of the earth. They love their home, and the exotic fauna and flora surrounding them, and they are heartbroken to have to leave it. The children aren’t sure they will be able to convince their father to abandon the place when the time comes, and yet, it could also be a new beginning for them. The scientists and researchers who have come and gone during their stay on Shearwater have long departed, and the Salt family has only a few weeks to go when a ferocious storm leaves a woman washed up on the shore. The arrival of this stranger, one who should never have survived her time in the ocean, causes conflicting emotions for all, and as their last weeks pass, chaos sets in.

This book is a riveting thriller, an atmospheric literary gem and a masterclass in nature writing all rolled into one. The island itself drags you in, the characters so real you can’t help but fall for them, and the mystery underlying it all is completely enthralling. But at its heart this book is a reminder of what we all may lose in the not-too-distant future: ‘Why maybe none of us will be [all right], because we have, all of us humans, decided what to save, and that is ourselves.’