Migrations

I really liked her Wild Dark Shore, its characters, its story. I am less excited about Migrations. It is a sad, dystopian tale that takes place in the Age of Mass Extinction where nearly all the animals have gone extinct. The last wolf is locked away in an extinction sanctuary. The sea turtles, big cats, rhinos, everything is long gone. Science tries to save what's left of the bees and bats and butterflies because they are pollinators and humans will go hungry without plants. Also, while I liked the characters in Wild Dark Shore, I could not say the same about the characters in Migrations, especially Franny. More could have been said about the boat crew (they are fishing illegally because most of the fish have disappeared ). The migration voyage itself is rather far-fetched. Still, it is a warning--a cautionary tale of where selfish humanity might be heading. The book is "written with sadness and regret "(for the animals that have been wiped out) "and for love for those that remain."

This is my favorite author. Her books are each very different but full of literary wizardry. The character development is subtle with a gentle unveiling of each persons soul. There are no red herrings or tricks but a simple telling of an amazing story full of humanity and emotions. I can hardly wait for the next book

I found this a really interesting read. Strong woman character but realistically flawed.

Loved the book

I didn’t give 5 stars because because of the difficulty keeping up with changes of time frame. I wish it had been writing with fewer.

Inside the pages of a novel lived the only beauty offered up by the world.Charlotte McConaghy certainly delivered on offering a deeply moving, beautiful tale. This story centers around Franny Stone, a woman with a devastating life who befriends crows, has the will of a lion, and runs away from any place that should be called home unless it's the jagged rocks and coldness of the ocean. The pacing of the story is phenomenal. While it does begin a bit slowly, no debating that, it picks up subtly until it feels like you've been at this pace, devouring page after page, the entire time. Alternating between past and present, we get to see Franny come to the realization that her life has not been "a migration without a destination" at all, despite how many times her heart breaks.Franny's husband, Niall, is... shall I say, such a romantic. While I guessed at Franny's letters early on, I was left devastated at the truth. The logbook, the last entry she read. Feeling the cold, agonizing fear of Franny was never more real for me than in that moment, the moment he told her, "Good girl." To remember how she felt when they first touched in his lab, him letting her explore that "creature born to flight" left "dull [and] lifeless," but then for your body to take over as it has so many times before would make anybody forget about their toes. It's easy to see why so many people are fond of Franny, of her will. Her hope, though I doubt she'd have admitted it as such.Franny's story isn't only about her and the people she encounters along her way to do something none of the people in Greenland thought possible. It asks important questions about life and death, about cohabitation, survival. McConaghy makes sure that there are subtle references to the world as we know it heading into this dying world of Frannys, just as often as she makes her point boldly, loudly. If only we could all teach ourselves to know something, to love something, to fight for it. Because at the end of the day, Franny's present day is a beautifully woven love story. A story of a woman I hope we don't have to wait for. That thousands of species don't have time to wait for. But if we must wait, it'll be worth it.

I read it as quickly as I could- did not want to stop reading it! Even if it was sad and desperate in many, many ways, it was a love story (in all kinds of ways).

I found Migrations an interesting read if not a bit unusual. I could not warm to the main character and wanted to get to know some of the other characters more (such as her husband and the captain of the ship). There were a lot of storylines happening and many *big* issues that needed more time and explanation. People lose their lives in the story and have jail time but it’s quickly glossed over and moved on to the next big thing. It may just be me and the type of novels I enjoy reading, but I like to take my time really exploring a situation and character. I would rather have fewer MOMENTS and more depth. The ending was disappointing and rushed. It was so far fetched I could only roll my eyes. There was potential but it fell flat for me.

Migrations is a beautifully-written, breathtakingly poignant and often difficult book. This book was the One-Read Book in our community this summer, and I found it surprising that so many people apparently didn’t like the main character, so perhaps this book isn’t for everyone. As for me, I plan to read it a second time. I rushed through parts of the book, not because I didn’t love them, but because I was so interested in the final outcome. Both the descriptions of nature in this slightly dystopian book and the descriptions of emotions and inner turmoil left me breathless. I “saw” places I will likely never see in real-life. The bitter cold throughout the book becomes almost a living thing, but the writer’s use of language makes it beautiful. I knew very little about terns before I read this, but now I love them — that’s how powerful the language and the story are. I found the main character extremely compelling and believable. Many of her decisions and actions are problematic, but they are understandable and, in the end, I felt both empathy and sympathy for her. The fact that we are perhaps facing a world like this one in the book make the book even more compelling. This author made me feel more deeply my connection to the animals and birds we face losing in the future. So, if you want a beautifully written work of fiction that often feels real, one that will move you toward a deeper understanding of both people and nature, this book may be for you.

What an amazing book! At first I was a bit skeptical as the chapters skip around to different times of Franny's life, and that's not always my favorite style of writing. But as the story progressed, I understood that's how she was revealing the story of why she was doing what she was doing. Why Franny would choose to rag along on a fishing boat to chase the arctic terns to Antarctica. And what a story it is. A world where animals are pretty much extinct, and climate change is speeding up. It's a scary thing to think about, especially as it is a very real possibility in our future if we don't change our ways. A gorgeous story of finding yourself through all the pain and heartbreak life throws at you. Highly recommend!

This is my favorite book that I read through all of 2023. I read it through Kindle Unlimited and loved it so much that I purchased a physical copy. I was so upset that it came bent and damaged--likely due to my mailman shoving the large book into my small mailbox. However, the content of this book is amazing and unlike anything I have ever read. It is so heart wrenching and I love it.

Charlotte McConaghy knows how to weave a personal emotional drama with mystery while envisioning a world that is threatened by the impact of human activity. In this novel the backdrop is the extinction of many wild birds. She ties both themes into the story seamlessly. The main character, Franny Stone, follows the last migration of the Arctic terns from one of the last commercial fishing vessels (Saghani) and her reasons are revealed in pieces. It builds and makes it hard to put the book down. Loved all the characters we meet on this vessel that all have their own unique stories. We hear about her lonely ma and her husband Niall Lynch through her memories while on the voyage. Highly recommend.

This story is set in a not-too-distant future when climate change, overhunting and overfishing is causing major species extinction and the disappearance of birds and fish. A troubled young woman, Franny Lynch, joins the crew of a fishing boat to follow what is believed to be the last flock of arctic terns on their journey from the arctic to the Antarctic. The arctic tern is the bird species with the longest annual migration of any species. They fly over 9000 miles each way from Greenland to Antarctica. Franny attaches GPS locators to some of the birds and uses her computer to track them. The fishing boat crew agrees to take her on because they believe that following the terns will help them catch fish, something that has become increasingly difficult.There are tensions between Franny and the crew because she is untrained and therefore dangerous to herself and perhaps others, and also because she is a “greenie”, an environmentalist, and fishing boat crews and “greenies” don’t get along well at a time when fishing is threatening ocean life. However, as they get to know each other bonds develop between her and most other crew members. It turns out everyone aboard has their own dramatic stories that intersect in surprising ways. It becomes increasingly clear that Franny’s obsession with the terns is much more than an ecological interest.The story jumps back in time 19 years, 12 years, 8 years, 4 years, 12 months, forming parallel story lines, all with their own mysteries. The author is making it clear when you switch time period and she is keeping the stories distinct, even though they naturally are interrelated, so despite the different timelines it is easy to follow everything that is going on. The different timelines also allow you to follow how and why wildlife has deteriorated during the years leading up to Franny’s big journey.Franny’s family was very troubled, and her past was difficult and her self-destructive tendencies and inability to stay around and commit to relationships is a thread throughout the book that creates drama, surprises and interesting subplots. As you read the book, mysteries are added, and the mysteries grow until they are finally explained in ways that were to me entirely surprising yet making perfect sense. This made it almost impossible to put the book down.The book is a real page turner. It is full of interesting subplots, surprises, revelations, and drama coupled with complicated but very believable characters. The character development is excellent, and I can imagine the actors who will play whom in case the book will be used for a future movie. The book also brings attention to the current emerging extinction event created by us and how this will create conflict in society, at the same time as it highlights the humanity of people regardless on which side we are on. The book points out that we are self-destructive, as a species but also in our own lives. I highly recommend this book.

Flatiron Books sent me an early copy of Migrations in galley form when it had a different cover. The pandemic was just beginning, and when I heard that this was about animals going extinct, I was not in the place to read it. Not yet. I tell you all that to say I was wrong because this wasn’t a hard read in any way. I went on to buy this book in every form, and I’ve been talking nonstop about how memorable it is.Migrations never felt hard to read. In fact, the writing is effortless and beautiful, and while the topic is certainly a dystopian one, especially for someone who loves animals as much as I do, it always felt realistic - this could actually happen. And this book? It’s a fair warning.The main character is Franny whose mission is to follow the last Arctic terns on their migration to Antarctica. First, she has to find a ship willing to take her there, which she does, and what proceeds feels much like a thrilling adventure story in part, while also sharing other aspects of Franny’s life leading up to this migration. I’m all about characters in my books, and Charlotte McConaghy knows how to write vivid, richly drawn, complex characters.My interest in this novel never waned. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It made me feel all the emotions about animals and human nature as well. It’s an absolutely perfect book. My highest recommendation and absolutely huggable.

It became apparent to me that this book was extraordinarily well written when I realized that I believed its truth even though I know no people like the characters in this book, I have no experience with physical surroundings like the settings in this book, and I despair to imagine a world with so little wildlife. Our author made me believe it all. In the main narrative, which is set in a not-so-distant future, Franny is on a quest to follow the polar migration of the artic terns. It is an improbable and nearly impossible journey by sea. Particularly for Franny who has no funding, no official backing, and no ship. All wildlife, including birds and fish, is seriously endangered and there have been mass extinctions. Franny believes that this will be the last migration that the birds make before they too are gone. The story unfolds in a nonlinear fashion as it shifts between times and places to let bits of information about Franny and her past flow through to the reader. Franny is an interesting character who has significant personality issues including some which affect her reliability as a friend, partner, and narrator. She is damaged and at times damaging. But, I cared about her and wanted to find out more. The scenes on the boats are harrowing. You may find yourself shivering even as you are in the warmth of your home just because the descriptions of the icy sea are so effective. I will not summarize the plot because it is best to let it unfold as intended by the author. This is a particularly good literary novel. It was a great selection for my book group, because it let to such an excellent discussion. Highly recommended.

I saw so many strong reviews for this one last year, so I’m glad I made time for it! I think winter is a good time to read this one as much of it is set around icebergs and cold water.Franny Stone is an interesting and complex character. As the book progresses, we are teased with hints about events in her life and they are slowly explained. She has experienced such adversity and loss in her life that it was heartbreaking. She has a habit of leaving when things start to overwhelm her. The overall premise is a depressing one, the world and climate change have finally driven all animals into extinction, even birds and most fish.Franny starts out on one last quest to follow a few remaining Arctic terns as they make their migration to Antarctica. She has to smooth talk her way onto a fishing boat and convince the boat captain that following the terns will lead to one last big catch. She is on a migration with the birds but also to find belonging herself and maybe forgiveness.This one is dark and powerful with a few glimmers of hope, perhaps viewed as a cautionary tale that we need to make many more changes to keep animals in our world. I found myself rooting for this damaged woman and I wasn’t quite sure how it would end.

From an early age, Irish woman Franny Stone has felt a strong connection to wild animals, especially birds. As a child, when she began feeding them, she had twelve wild crows following her and leaving her gifts. That connection and empathy with wild creatures sustains her when her parents abandon her. Franny is sent to live with a cold, unfeeling grandmother. She learns that bonds with humans are tenuous. That is until she meets Niall.Like Franny, Niall is obsessed with birds, specifically the Arctic Terns, who make an unbelievably long migratory journey every year. In the near future, the period in which this novel is set, Niall, a university professor, dedicates his life to stopping wild animals' mass extinction. This has been occurring at an unprecedented rate. When Niall meets Franny, he recognizes a kindred spirit, even though they have very different backgrounds. They fall in love and marry. Niall is perhaps the only person who understands Franny's insatiable need to be unfettered. She disappears for long stretches needing to feel freedom. She always returns, and life goes on as it did before, until the urge to move consumes her. To Niall, Franny is his wild bird.On the most recent trip, Franny has hitched a ride on a commercial fishing boat. Her promise to the captain is that a few Arctic Terns she has managed to tag will lead them to fish. The vessel has a monitor that allows the birds' flight to be tracked. Franny is not accepted at first among the crew and occupies any spare time writing letters to Niall. She has an ulterior motive that no one knows. She has also carefully hidden details about her past from the crew and, amazingly, from herself.This novel will appeal to bird lovers, environmentalists, and mystery readers alike. The mystery is one that doesn't present itself at first. However, as you read, you will become aware that something is off about Franny, which makes the ending all the more surprising and poignant. This is the type of book that provokes thought long after it's read.

I picked up this Kindle book on a recommendation from Emily St. John Mandel, the author of Station Eleven and a speaker at a Writer’s Digest conference a couple of years ago. Wow. What a strange yet riveting book!On the surface, you could describe it by its storyline: in a future time perhaps not so far away, when insects and birds, sea life and non-domesticated animals are almost extinct because of human action leading to climate change and overfishing, a woman tracks the migration of the last of the Arctic terns from Arctic to Antarctic. But it’s so much more than that. In bits and pieces, through flashbacks, we learn the story of the life of Franny Stone, a broken, mentally ill young woman whose night dreams and visions lead her to the precipice of suicide time and again – and perhaps murder as well.When we meet Franny, she’s somewhere in the Arctic, putting tracking bands on three Arctic terns to follow their migratory path. Then she persuades a fishing boat captain to take her on board as a working, nonpaying passenger with the lure that the birds she is following will lead them to fish, which are just about extinct now. The novel tells the story of their journey, interspersed with Franny’s life journey through madness and her marriage to a professor named Niall Lynch who shares her passion for the birds.The novel is luminous and Franny’s story is riveting. I kept wanting to read more, yet was fearful of what would come next, so I’d stop until the next night. I don’t think the book was that long, actually, considering the relatively short time it took me to get through it. Hard to tell with a Kindle book.Here it is, from Amazon: 272 pages. Also, it says this book is the Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best Book of the Year in Fiction. Well done, Ms. McConaghy! Well done!

Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy, 2020Imagine a time, in the not too distant future, a dystopia where the oceans have been emptied of most life by climate change, acidic water and overfishing. Imagine a future where most bird species have gone extinct due to pesticides and environmental degradation. This is the premise by this first novel by Australian writer, Charlotte McConaghy. The novel begins on the coast of Greenland where a woman Franny Lynch is capturing and attaching GPS locators on some of the last surviving group of Artic Terns. Artic Terns are a bird species which embarks each year on the longest annual migration of any species. It is a journey of over 9000 miles each way from Greenland to Antarctica.It becomes apparent that this woman has an obsession; she wants to track and follow these Artic Terns on their migration. In order to do this she has to convince the captain of the last remaining fishing boat in Greenland to take her on this long and dangerous journey to Antarctica. Will the Terns lead the boat to the last remaining schools of herring? Why is this woman so obsessed and what is her purpose? This is the premise and over the course of the novel we follow her, captain Ennis and the crew of “Saghani” on an epic troubled journey to the far extremes of the globe.The book is also a story of the protagonist’s own life journey and migrations. Interspersed between the oceanic adventure are many flashbacks to Franny’s somewhat emotionally fractured life and her search for meaning in a world being degraded and destroyed by greed and despoliation. This is also a story of the beauty and love of birds and the profound loss it would be to all our lives if they no longer existed. Franny’s husband Niall is an Ornithologist studying and trying to save the last surviving species of birds. Together two souls distraught about the ecological destruction around them, trying to save what they can, facing a bleak future where mankind is alone in a desert of his own making.In a sense this novel is in the category of dystopian writing such as Cormack McCarthy’s “The Road”. It is also a very beautifully written emotional piece about a person trying to discover their identity, their place in the world and their purpose. The Artic Terns know this instinctually, they know where they are going each year on their migration and regardless of the risk and pain they persist. This in essence is the story of a woman who persists. As Keats said; “do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul”. This is also a story that can also be interpreted as a warning about the current course of humankind and the price we may well pay for our greed and negligence. We will indeed be all poorer. JACK

Franny Stone was never able to stay in one place for very long. Even as a child, she yearned to fly free just like the birds of her dreams. Maybe, it was the pain of being abandoned by her mother or perhaps it was the cold indifference she was shown by the grandmother who raised her, she only knew she never wanted to stop running. Until the day that she met Professor Niall Lynch.She would secretly watch him give impassioned lectures that detailed the devastation that humans so cruelly caused the Earth’s wildlife from the very back of the auditorium. And she couldn’t stop thinking that he was the most enchanting creature that she had ever encountered.It should have been impossible for the talented professor to fall in love with the simple girl. All it really took was one kiss in a greenhouse and she knew whatever heart she had belonged only to Niall. Building a life together calmed her restless soul for a time. But the peace that she found disappeared just like his beloved Arctic terns.All that Franny’s left with is her soul crushing guilt and her dreams of death. With the help of the crew aboard the Saghani, she has one last journey to make. A journey to fulfill a promise and to keep the precious birds from disappearing forever.“Because it seems to me, suddenly, that if it’s the end, really and truly, if you’re making the last migration not just of your life but of your entire species, you don’t stop sooner. Even when you’re tired and starved and hopeless. You go farther.”In Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy lays down an emotionally savage landscape upon where all the Earth’s wildlife is on the very edge of extinction and a lonely girl searches for redemption.Franny is a character that is utterly fragile despite her fiercely independent veneer. The heartache that she endures throughout her life seems almost unbearable at times and it’s chilling to watch her unravel right along with the story. But it’s her longing for love and her regret that touched my heart the most.When all of this is combined with Charlotte’s compelling and atmospheric prose, the result is a story that is so tragically gorgeous that it will be etched in my mind for years to come…