Migrations

A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive.

'An extraordinary novel... as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read' Emily St. John Mandel 
 
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive. 
 
Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. 
 
As animal populations plummet, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool. 
 
Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards - and from. 
 
From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic, moving story of the possibility of hope against all odds. 
______________ 
 
READERS LOVE MIGRATIONS: 
'Wrenchingly beautiful' 
'Visceral, heart-breaking' 
'Simply phenomenal' 
'Raw and gripping' 
'Riveting' 
'Here's your next favourite' 
'A story...about love, passion, wandering' 
 
*Previously published as The Last Migration*

Compulsive stuff, driven at a cracking pace by the power of the elements and the fierce will of its single-minded narrator

The Last Migration is as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read. This is an extraordinary novel by a wildly talented writer

Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

There's a brooding lushness to this novel's prose that belies its stark premise... this keening lament of an adventure is compelling

A fascinating hybrid of nature writing and dystopian fiction... gripping... by merging cli-fi and nature writing, the novel powerfully demonstrates the spiritual and emotional costs of environmental destruction

The Last Migration is a wonder. I read it in a gasp. There is hope in these pages; a balm for these troubled times. McConaghy's words cut through to the bone

Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept

I'm a sucker for a complicated narrator, and Franny Stone might be the queen of them all. In this tantalizingly beautiful epic, Franny's life has been marked by secrets and loss, and so she turns to where she cannot reach: the skies

Gripping, tender and beautifully done. This novel is as intimate as it is urgent-you emerge thrilled and dazed, but also galvanized to save the planet

Visceral and haunting...This novel's prose soars with its transporting descriptions of the planet's landscapes and their dwindling inhabitants, and contains many wonderful meditations on our responsibilities to our earthly housemates...The Last Migration is a nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over

Dreamy, elegiac... both an adventure story and a piece of speculative climate fiction, constantly slipping between a kind of literary realism and more magical elements, between moments of domestic drama and sweeping epic... an aching and poignant book, and one that's pressing in its timeliness... It's also a book about love, about trying to understand and accept the creatureliness that exists within our selves, and what it means to be a human animal, that we might better accommodate our own wildness within the world

Gutting and gorgeous, The Last Migration is an astounding meditation on love, trauma, and the cost of survival. With soulful prose and deep empathy, Charlotte McConaghy weaves parallel stories of a woman and a world on the brink of devastation, but never without hope. Equal parts love letter and dirge, this is a true force of a book that I read holding my breath from its start to its symphonic finish - Julia Fine, author of What Should Be Wild 
 At a time when it feels like we're at the end of the world, this novel about a different kind of end of the world serves as both catharsis and escape

This novel is enchanting, but not in some safe, fairy-tale sense. Charlotte McConaghy has harnessed the rough magic that sears our souls. I recommend The Last Migration with my whole heart - Geraldine Brooks, Author of March 
 Powerful...Vibrant...Unique... If worry is the staple emotion that most climate fiction evokes in its readers, The Last Migration - the novelistic equivalent of an energizing cold plunge - flutters off into more expansive territory

How far do we have to go to escape our pasts and find ourselves? Charlotte McConaghy's luminous, brilliant novel, set in a future when wildlife is rapidly becoming extinct, is indeed about loss-but what makes it miraculous is that it is also about both the glimpses of hope and the shattering persistence of love, if we are only brave enough to acknowledge them. Written in prose as gorgeous as the crystalline beauty of the Arctic, The Last Migration is deeply moving, haunting, and, yes, important

Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You

A gutting portrait of a woman worn down by a world she never quite fit into

A lovely, haunting novel about a troubled woman's quest to follow the last surviving Arctic terns on their southerly migration. As she tries to make peace with the ghosts of her painful past, she must choose whether she herself wants - or deserves - to survive, in spite of everything she, and all humans, have destroyed and lost

Ceridwen Dovey, author of In the Garden of the Fugitives

Beautifully haunting... Spanning oceans and decades, Franny's physical and emotional journeys are at times devastating and, at others, surprisingly, undeniably hopeful... Brimming with stunning imagery and raw emotion, The Last Migration is the incredible story of personal redemption, self-forgiveness and hope for the future in the face of a world on the brink of collapse

Transfixing, gorgeously precise...[The] evocation of a world bereft of wildlife is piercing; Franny's otherworldliness is captivating; and her misadventures and anguished secrets are gripping

True and affecting, elegiac and imminent...The fractured timeline fills each chapter with suspense and surprises, parceled out so tantalizingly that it took disciplined willpower to keep from skipping down each page to see what happens... Franny charts our course through a novel that is efficient and exciting, indicting but forgiving, and hard but ultimately hopeful

Gorgeous...A personal reckoning that cuts right to the heart. This beautiful novel is an ode-if not an elegy-to an endangered planet and the people and places we love

A good nautical adventure...The Last Migration moves at a fast, exciting clip, motored as much by love for 'creatures that aren't human' as by outrage at their destruction

An ode to our disappearing natural world

You can practically hear the glaciers cracking to pieces and the shrill yelps of the circling terns

There's a brooding lushness to this novel's prose that belies its stark premise... this keening lament of an adventure is compelling.

A fascinating hybrid of nature writing and dystopian fiction... gripping... by merging cli-fi and nature writing, the novel powerfully demonstrates the spiritual and emotional costs of environmental destruction

I’m a sucker for a complicated narrator, and Franny Stone might be the queen of them all. In this tantalizingly beautiful epic, Franny’s life has been marked by secrets and loss, and so she turns to where she cannot reach: the skies

Gripping, tender and beautifully done. This novel is as intimate as it is urgent—you emerge thrilled and dazed, but also galvanized to save the planet

Visceral and haunting...This novel's prose soars with its transporting descriptions of the planet's landscapes and their dwindling inhabitants, and contains many wonderful meditations on our responsibilities to our earthly housemates...The Last Migration is a nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over

Dreamy, elegiac... both an adventure story and a piece of speculative climate fiction, constantly slipping between a kind of literary realism and more magical elements, between moments of domestic drama and sweeping epic... an aching and poignant book, and one that's pressing in its timeliness... It's also a book about love, about trying to understand and accept the creatureliness that exists within our selves, and what it means to be a human animal, that we might better accommodate our own wildness within the world.

Gutting and gorgeous, The Last Migration is an astounding meditation on love, trauma, and the cost of survival. With soulful prose and deep empathy, Charlotte McConaghy weaves parallel stories of a woman and a world on the brink of devastation, but never without hope. Equal parts love letter and dirge, this is a true force of a book that I read holding my breath from its start to its symphonic finish

Julia Fine, author of What Should Be Wild

At a time when it feels like we're at the end of the world, this novel about a different kind of end of the world serves as both catharsis and escape

This novel is enchanting, but not in some safe, fairy-tale sense. Charlotte McConaghy has harnessed the rough magic that sears our souls. I recommend The Last Migration with my whole heart

Powerful...Vibrant...Unique... If worry is the staple emotion that most climate fiction evokes in its readers, The Last Migration - the novelistic equivalent of an energizing cold plunge - flutters off into more expansive territory

How far do we have to go to escape our pasts and find ourselves? Charlotte McConaghy’s luminous, brilliant novel, set in a future when wildlife is rapidly becoming extinct, is indeed about loss—but what makes it miraculous is that it is also about both the glimpses of hope and the shattering persistence of love, if we are only brave enough to acknowledge them. Written in prose as gorgeous as the crystalline beauty of the Arctic, The Last Migration is deeply moving, haunting, and, yes, important

A lovely, haunting novel about a troubled woman’s quest to follow the last surviving Arctic terns on their southerly migration. As she tries to make peace with the ghosts of her painful past, she must choose whether she herself wants – or deserves – to survive, in spite of everything she, and all humans, have destroyed and lost

Charlotte McConaghy has been writing from a young age. She has both a Graduate Degree in Screenwriting and a Masters Degree in Screen Arts, and has worked in script development for film and television for several years. She has written a number of speculative fiction books but Migrations is her first literary novel, and will be published around the world. She lives in Sydney.

'An extraordinary novel... as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read' Emily St. John Mandel 
 
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive. 
 
Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. 
 
As animal populations plummet, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool. 
 
Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards - and from. 
 
From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic, moving story of the possibility of hope against all odds. 
______________ 
 
READERS LOVE MIGRATIONS: 
'Wrenchingly beautiful' 
'Visceral, heart-breaking' 
'Simply phenomenal' 
'Raw and gripping' 
'Riveting' 
'Here's your next favourite' 
'A story...about love, passion, wandering' 
 
*Previously published as The Last Migration*

The Last Migration

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive. 
 
How far would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. 
 
As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny's life begin to unspool. A daughter's yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards - and from. 
 
The Last Migration is a wild, gripping and deeply moving novel from a brilliant young writer. From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, through crashing Atlantic swells to the bottom of the world, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic story of the possibility of hope against all odds. 
 
'An extraordinary novel... as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read' Emily St. John Mandel 
 
© Charlotte McConaghy 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

‘An extraordinary novel… as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I’ve ever read’ Emily St. John Mandel 
 
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive. 
 
How far would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica. 
 
As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny’s life begin to unspool. A daughter’s yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards – and from. 
 
The Last Migration is a wild, gripping and deeply moving novel from a brilliant young writer. From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, through crashing Atlantic swells to the bottom of the world, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic story of the possibility of hope against all odds.

Charlotte McConaghy

Blazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy

So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact

Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation (via Twitter)

Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel

One of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read ... It's beautifully written and smart and impressively, importantly atmospheric. And it's also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read ... I loved loved loved this book

Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is

This heart-pounding novel digs into the complex relationships between humans and the creatures with which we share the natural world

Suspenseful and poignant...humans and animals alike can break our hearts

Far more than an old wolves' tale. Instead, it illustrates what it's like to be an outsider from both a human and animal perspective and the level of healing and acceptance it takes from within to be accepted and to accept yourself

Urges us to take a lesson from the wolves, and learn to lean on one another

Lyrical, captivating, thought-provoking and thrilling, this immersive read will capture your attention from the first page

The Australian author made waves with last summer's Migrations, a meditation on climate change and loneliness, and returns with a new story set in the Scottish Highlands, where two twin sisters join a team attempting to reintroduce a pack of wolves to their natural surroundings

Unflinching in its view of the harm humans inflict on the environment and on each other and insisting on the interconnectedness of the two Once There Were Wolves delivers a powerful call for hope in the face of catastrophe

Vividly realized... Gorgeously rendered...A story full of subtle surprises...This is a stunner

Poetic...A lovely, gripping tale about a world that could be our own

Once There Were Wolves is one of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read, which you do as slowly as you can because you want to savor it, except the pages keep turning furiously because the story is so thrilling and so powerful. It's beautifully written and smart and impressively, importantly atmospheric. And it's also funny and warm and perfectly crafted with some of the best characters I have ever read. I will be enthusiastically recommending this novel to everyone forever. Charlotte McConaghy has cemented herself as a sure-thing, must-read writer for me. I loved loved loved this book

The instant NEW YORK TIMES bestseller

***New York Times Bestseller*** 
 
'So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact' Jeff VanderMeer, author of Annihilation 
 
A wild and gripping novel about one woman's quest to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands at any cost 
 
Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity. 
 
As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska. 
 
But violence dogs their footsteps and one night Inti stumbles over the body of a farmer. Unable to accept that her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And can she trust the man she is beginning to love when he becomes the main suspect? 
 
Propulsive and unforgettable, Once There Were Wolves is the spellbinding story of a woman desperate to save her family, the wild animals and the natural world she loves, at any cost. 
 
'One of those very rare, special novels that changes you as you read' Laurie Frankel

Charlotte McConaghy

Praise for Once There Were Wolves

Blazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy

So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact

Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel

Blazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy

So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact

Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel

Blazing...Visceral...As McConaghy shows in this stunning book, the limits of language lead us to the limits of empathy

So damn good. A page-turner that makes you think and has a huge emotional impact

Bold...A heartfelt and earnest novel

Books by Charlotte McConaghy

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