Book Review: Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy

What a stunning read. I read this book right on the heels of Bri Lee’s Seed, and was struck by the similarities in subject matter (Antarctic or quasi-Antarctic seed vaults on the brink of abandonment; two narrators who believe it is immoral to bring children into the world; two incredibly lonely men who feel that isolation will somehow solve their problems; Australian authors). Yet while I found Seed compelling for its flawed narrator’s almost comical sense of self-righteousness about his anti-natalist views, Wild Dark Shore is beautiful for precisely the opposite reason: Dominic’s fierce and tender love for his children. This book was stunning in its depictions of nature, but to me this was ultimately a book about parental love than a book about oceans or islands or seeds. McConaghy has me enthralled; I will read anything she writes.