by Charlotte McConaghy
4.8 · 4 reviewsA family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore.
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon. 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. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets.
4 reviews
I read the last third in one sitting with my heart going. Beautiful, sad, and the island itself is the best character.
The structure of two people each hiding something, each nursing the other's family through a crisis, is so tense. And the climate backdrop is handled without a single lecture.
Go in expecting a slow, gorgeous character study with a mystery running underneath rather than a page-turner. The Salt children are extremely well drawn. The pacing dips around the midpoint.
A seed bank on a sinking island near Antarctica, one family left, and a woman washed up in a storm. McConaghy builds dread out of weather and silence. The sabotaged radios reveal made me actually gasp.