Charlotte McConaghy has crafted a heart-wrenching story in The Last Migration. Fraught with desolation, longing, survival and possibility, this is one of those novels that will nestle deep into your heart, breaking it over and over with love and tenderness.
Charlotte McConaghy (Photo by Emma Daniels).
The last of the Arctic terns are embarking on what may be their final migration to Antarctica and Franny Lynch is determined to follow them. She talks her way onto the Saghani, one of the last certified boats to fish for Atlantic herring, and together with the crew she sets off south. As Franny follows the birds, she is forced to overcome the hindrances that threaten to offset her course, and the relentless devastation of her past.
A deep sadness permeates this novel, from the state of the world to Franny’s inner sorrow. It felt like this sadness was gnawing at my heart, persistent and present. Franny is riddled with a grief she can trace back to her childhood, which reached cataclysmic levels in the wake of tragedy. Amongst this anguish she longs to belong, to make sense of life and to find a place for her heart to call home. Despite battling the loss and yearning inside her, she has a strength that pulls her out of the storm and keeps her moving forward, just like the Arctic terns. Franny’s bond to the birds is just part of her life. Her like-minded need to migrate, to wander the earth, is part of her nature and has been a source of both pain and joy. Franny navigates unforgiving seas to make sense of her life, wanting to migrate without a destination no longer.
While this is a speculative, post-apocalyptic world where 80% of the wild animals are extinct (including elephants, rhinoceroses and lions) and few forests remain (you can book to visit these before their destruction), it feels more like a haunting snapshot of our undeniable future, a reality where mass animal extinctions and deforestation become inconsequential matters. It brings light to our current climate issues and the need to act now before it’s too late.
The Last Migration is a visceral experience, full of beauty and strength that shines through the anguish. With a sense of poignancy and a glimmer of hope, McConaghy captured my heart, leaving me hanging on to every word and desperate for whatever she writes next.
—The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Books Australia) is out now. Signed copies are available from Booktopia.*
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The Last Migration
Limited Signed Copies Available!
How far you 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...
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