Copyright TIME
Nearly drowned, Rowan—a lean, angle-jawed woman with a shaved scalp—washes up on the nearly uninhabited Shearwater Island, off the coast of Antarctica. Dominic and his three children, on the island serving as guardians of a seed vault “meant to outlast humanity,” fetch Rowan into their lighthouse, nursing her back to health in fits and starts. Charlotte McConaghy’s novel portrays a place removed from civilization, if not from climate change: Dominic and the kids have grown accustomed to “the gurgling roar of an elephant seal . . . or the flamboyant orange eyebrows of the last royal penguin colony.” Against this backdrop, and without means of escaping Shearwater, Rowan and Dominic circle each other warily, each keeping a secret that could unravel the precarious emotional equilibrium they establish at the “arse-end of the world.” The best-selling author of Once There Were Wolves spins a haunting tale of ruined lives and glimmers of redemption. —Hamilton Cain These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser.
