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.’