#@charlottemcconaghy – kindread spirits

Dominic already has his hands full. He is preparing his already diminished family – his daughter and two sons – to evacuate their tiny Shearwater Island along with its UN-funded vault supplying the essential seeds for a would-be ecocrisis. But when a frightening storm causes a shipwreck near their coast, Fen, Dominic’s daughter, discovers a woman’s body floating near shore. Being an exceptionally strong swimmer, she pulls the body to the beach and finds that this woman is miraculously still alive. As the family together care for this mysterious woman, Rowan, their secrets emerge, their conflicts come to light, and Rowan’s own story becomes intertwined with theirs in dangerously unexpected ways.

There is a good reason for this book being on so many “favorite” lists of 2025. It truly has everything: characters who are struggling with their circumstances and with whom we can identify; a setting that is both picturesque and tragic; themes that are crucial for us to ponder; and a plot that builds to a physically tremulous crescendo. And all told in writing that is vivid and tactile.

The narration rotates around from character to character, so that the story can build around each character’s perspective. This provides great depth to both the plot and the character development, as we see from each of them how the story is built, where their thoughts are based, and what they are experiencing emotionally. And it is a profoundly emotional story, from all sides. And it builds and builds and surprises and shocks – and I, for one, was up until the wee hours of the morning just to finish this book, which I cannot say I do often.

One underlying theme here is that our world is sinking. Not just this tiny island near Australia, but all of it. Perhaps not this week or next, but within our lifetimes, and certainly within our children’s lifetimes. And while it’s terrifying to think about, we cannot deny facts. How many wildfires or vicious storms do we have to live through to understand that our world is changing because of what we’ve done to it? Receding back to reliance on oil and gas when we were going forward to renewable energy sources is a dangerous strategy. We can make a difference by whom we vote for, what strategies we support, what we invest in. We can effect change.

And yes, this is a MUST READ, as you might have guessed. Because yes, you really must read this one!

Inti is on a mission here in this sheep farmland of Australia, and these farmers are not going to stop her. Can they not understand that after they had hunted the wolves to extinction, their ecosystem faltered and the forest became unstable because of it? Here she is, with her team of scientists, trying to save the forest with her proven method of rewilding the landscape with the reintroduction of wolves and they are fighting her at every step. Out of fear? Out of ignorance? Who knows? But as Inti battles these townfolk, she is also battling her own demons – hers, and those of her twin sister, Aggie. And maybe, anger and fighting can blind a person, dangerously, to what is right in front of them.

This is a stunning novel with a lofty mission. We are carried into Inti’s story, her mission to save the forest, a suspicious death, and her past that is entangled so deeply with her sister Aggie’s. Complex plot, complex characters, engaging from page one. But we are also afforded a window into the unique and mysterious wonders of the wolf – its habits, its predatory prowess, and its deep loyalty to its pack. We learn how essential the wolf as predator is to the whole ecosystem of the forest, keeping its prey in check in order to maintain the balance that evolved over centuries and that man did his best to try to destroy.

One can read article upon article about our endangered environment, but when we connect with it in a story such as this one, I believe it has a much stronger impact emotionally. By creating characters whom we relate to and who become heroes to us, we become more personally committed. Even the wolves are characters here, and we become attached to them, come to know them and their personality traits as Inti surmises from her tracking of them. And even though we know this is fiction, albeit with much fact woven through, because we are so invested in these characters and their outcome, we are also invested – enlightened, even – in the urgency of saving our planet – so much more than an article could ever accomplish.

It is a lofty mission that is absolutely accomplished, and beautifully so. Very highly recommend this – and if you’re environmentally inclined, consider it a MUST READ.