Longlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize
Charlotte McConaghy – Wild Dark Shore
Fiction · Penguin Random House Australia
About the Book
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
“As much a climate change-era mystery as an elegy to a world at the edge of ruin… Wild Dark Shore achieves a rare feat: a crowd-pleaser that is as fiercely intelligent as it is compelling.”
– 2026 Stella Prize Judges
About the Author
Charlotte McConaghy
Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the New York Times, USA Today and Indie bestseller Wild Dark Shore; as well as the NYT bestseller Once There Were Wolves, winner of the Indie Book Award for Fiction 2022; and the international bestseller Migrations, the Amazon Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020. Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages and are being adapted for film and television. She lives in Sydney with her family.
Further Reading
Reviews
“SPELLBINDING . . . Exceptionally imagined, thoroughly humane.” – Washington Post
“Abounds with EVOCATIVE nature writing.” – The New York Times Book Review
“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
Links
Listen to the New York Time Book Club Podcast’s episode on Wild Dark Shore.
Judges’ Report
A woman washes onto the shore of a remote island off the Antarctic coast. She is rescued by a family – a widowed father and his three children – who are the last inhabitants of an abandoned research base and seed bank. But who is this mysterious woman and what is she doing here? And what is this family hiding from her – and us, the reader? In Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy has produced a ripping, plot-driven literary page-turner. At the same time, she also invites us to ask profound and timely questions about how we raise children, and what we choose to salvage, in a world on the verge of collapse.Wild Dark Shore is as much a climate change-era mystery as an elegy to a world at the edge of ruin, punctuated with some of the most glorious descriptions of the majesty of the natural world. Written with a screenwriter’s eye for drama, and a novelist’s understanding of inner pain, Wild Dark Shore achieves a rare feat: a crowd-pleaser that is as fiercely intelligent as it is compelling. You will race to the end, with utter determination to talk to someone about That Twist once you’re done.
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