Migrations

* INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER *

"Visceral and haunting" (New York Times Book Review) · "Hopeful" (Washington Post) · "Powerful" (Los Angeles Times) · "Thrilling" (TIME) · "Tantalizingly beautiful" (Elle) · "Suspenseful, atmospheric" (Vogue) · "Aching and poignant" (Guardian)
· "Gripping" (The Economist)

Franny Stone has always been the kind of woman who is able to love but unable to stay. Leaving behind everything but her research gear, she arrives in Greenland with a singular purpose: to follow the last Arctic terns in the world on what might be their final migration to Antarctica. Franny talks her way onto a fishing boat, and she and the crew set sail, traveling ever further from shore and safety. But as Franny’s history begins to unspool—a passionate love affair, an absent family, a devastating crime—it becomes clear that she is chasing more than just the birds. When Franny's dark secrets catch up with her, how much is she willing to risk for one more chance at redemption?

Epic and intimate, heartbreaking and galvanizing, Charlotte McConaghy's Migrations is an ode to a disappearing world and a breathtaking page-turner about the possibility of hope against all odds.

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Published Jul 6, 2021

288 pages

Average rating: 6.98

292 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Jessmicky
Jun 20, 2025
9/10 stars
Beautifully written
AR74
May 06, 2025
7/10 stars
lovely and unexpected
BHM
Jan 31, 2025
6/10 stars
I don't usually read books associated with climate change because I am already so anxious about it. But, this one hooked me with the birds and the sailing. I did like the ending because it seemed realistic to me. I wish I had understood the reasons for some of her behavior - the choking, etc. I don't buy that it's some inherited quality. And I also thought that it was longer than it needed to be.. A better editor might have solved that problem.
Camzozo
Jul 02, 2024
7/10 stars
Really liked this odd book. Deep, challenging to understand at times, mysterious in a curious way. Loved the writing. Futuristic yet set in tangible reality and difficult life emotions we all face at times.
Anonymous
Dec 28, 2023
8/10 stars
Beautifully written, well-researched, uncomfortably foreshadowing in its predictions of the environmental havoc humans have and will wreak on the world, birds in particular. The story is told through the first-person perspective of the narrator, Franny, who finds her way aboard a fishing vessel to follow a small flock of terns on possibly their final migration to the Antarctic. I love a good sea story, and this book certainly is that, and much more.

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