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Wild Dark Shore: A Novel

An ENTHRALLING new novel from the NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves

"A WILDLY TALENTED writer."
―Emily St. John Mandel

“RIVETING.” ―Booklist (starred review)
“[A] TERRIFIC thriller.” ―Kirkus (starred review)
“As lush as it is TAUT WITH TENSION.” ―Library Journal (starred review)

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. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.

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320 pages

Average rating: 8.29

24 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

KangaDale
Mar 26, 2025
8/10 stars
For 8 years, following the death of his wife and their mother, Dominic Salt and his 3 children, Raff, Fen and Orly have been living on the remote island of Shearwater between Tasmania and Antarctica. There is a lighthouse, global seedbank and research base on the island. However, rising sea levels and the melting permafrost have led to the island being no longer viable. The family and researchers must prepare to pack up and permanently leave the island, taking with them as many of the seeds as possible from the seedbank. The novel begins 6 weeks prior to the anticipated arrival of the ship, when a mystery women, Rohan, washes up on the shore, barely alive. Her reasons for wanting to land on the island are gradually revealed, as connections are formed between Rohan and the various members of the Salt family. Over a short time, the complicated histories of the island, its animal populations and those of the people living there are drawn out with many engrossing twists and turns. I was quickly drawn into the intrigue and suspense novel, and was absorbed by the increasing drama that unfolded over those few short weeks leading up to the arrival of the Naval Icebreaker vessel.

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