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Learn moreBookseller recommendation
“Franny has always longed to be like a bird—free, wandering wherever she likes. In a future world where most animal species have become extinct, her last wish is to follow a flock of Arctic Terns along their last migration—from North Pole to South. She talks her way onto a commercial fishing boat named for the Raven and faces a treacherous journey alongside the crew. But while the sailors aim to take more than their share of the ocean’s remaining fish, all Franny wants is to give—to the nature that has sustained her, to the nature that has died at human hands. A heart-wrenching tale, Migrations roars like the reckless waves of the sea.”
— Mary • Raven Book Store
Bookseller recommendation
“Set in a world that is possibly our near future, where animals, birds and fish have been driven to extinction by global warming and human consumption, Franny Stone is desperate to follow the last migration of Arctic terns as they head south from Greenland. She persuades the captain of a small fishing boat to take her on as a crew member, convincing him that the terns will lead them to the elusive fish he’s hunting. She must reject her own morals about fishing to follow the terns. And along the way, her past is uncovered and the crew put to risk; they themselves become the hunted. There is something haunting in this story, something unforgettable. This comes from the beauty of the language in opposition to the stark realities of a world where so much of what we love is simply gone. Franny speaks for many of us. What might we do to escape our past? And, more importantly, can we find a way to keep love alive in the face of tragedy?”
— Sarah • Loganberry Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Migrations is an unusual and amazing story – a bit of a modern Moby Dick. Franny is broken and adrift after years of searching for a sense of her troubled life and hope for our planet. Animals are extinct, except possibly a few Arctic Terns who Franny is determined to follow. The crew on the Saghani adds great depth to the story. Lovely prose especially of nature and expertly placed flashbacks of Franny’s past troubles adds just the right amount of suspense and insight to Franny’s determination. Don’t peak, but…the ending is perfect.”
— Karin • Bookworm of Edwards
Bookseller recommendation
“Set in an all-too-plausible near future dealing with the devastation of Anthropocene extinction, Migrations follows Franny as she talks her way on to a fishing vessel, set on tracking the last Arctic terns on their final migration to the Antarctic. McConaghy’s prose is icy and beautiful, cutting through the North Atlantic as well as Franny’s troubling past. This book is gorgeous!”
— Julia • Boulder Book Store
Bookseller recommendation
“Franny Stone is a broken person and a wanderer, haunted by her past in a near future world experiencing the sixth extinction. A lover of birds, she sets out to follow some of the last arctic terns on what is likely their last migration, gaining passage on a fishing boat searching for one more harvest. The eclectic crew is weary at first but takes Franny and her mission on, following the path of the birds and learning more of her past and secrets on their journey south. An atmospheric novel on climate, this will appeal to lovers of internal struggles reflected in the natural world.”
— Rachel • Brilliant Books Audio
Bookseller recommendation
“Imagine a world where almost all the animals have disappeared. Imagine a love strong enough to believe it can make a difference. In a fragile, near-future world, author Charlotte McConaghy gives us Franny Stone, a character as wild and broken as the few remaining Arctic terns she is determined to follow on what will most likely be their last migration. Franny’s quest is as epic as Captain Ahab’s, and while it leaves much destruction in its wake, it is ultimately a quest toward life. Migrations is a book so beautiful it will leave you breathless. Breathless with cold despair, and breathless with pulsating life and hope. This is a truly stunning debut.”
— Lisa Swayze • Buffalo Street Books
"Seasoned narrator Kreinik showcases her prowess as a dialect coach as she embodies McConaghy’s vast cast...With deft agility, Kreinik guides McConaghy’s spectacular Moby Dick-esque journey towards an all-too imminent dystopia in which humanity faces a future alone." -- Booklist, starred review
* 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)
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.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books
"Migrations is a nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over. It’s a story about our mingling sorrows, both personal and global, and the survivor’s guilt that will be left in their wake." - New York Times Book Review
"True and affecting, elegiac and imminent...The fractured timeline fills each chapter with suspense and surprises, parceled out so tantalizingly that it took disciplined willpower to keep from skipping down each page to see what happens...Ultimately hopeful." - The Washington Post
“Thrilling…In piecing together who this mysterious protagonist really is, McConaghy creates a detailed portrait of a woman on the cusp of collapse, consumed with a world that is every bit as broken as she is.” - TIME
Charlotte McConaghy is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Wild Dark Shore, Once There Were Wolves, and Migrations, which are being translated into more than twenty languages. She is based in Sydney, Australia.
Reviews
Instant National Bestseller
#1 IndieNext Pick
Amazon Spotlight Pick
Barnes & Noble Discover Pick
A Best Book of the Year (TIME)
“Visceral and haunting…As well as a first-rate work of climate fiction, Migrations is also a clever reimagining of Moby-Dick…This novel’s prose soars with its transporting descriptions of the planet’s landscapes and their dwindling inhabitants, and contains many wonderful meditations on our responsibilities to our earthly housemates…Migrations is a nervy and well-crafted novel, one that lingers long after its voyage is over.”
—The New York Times Book Review
"The beauty and the heartbreak of this novel is that it’s not preposterous. It feels true and affecting, elegiac and imminent...The fractured timeline fills each chapter with suspense and surprises, parceled out so tantalizingly that it took disciplined willpower to keep from skipping down each page to see what happens...In many ways, this is a story about grieving, an intimate tale of anguish set against the incalculable bereavements of climate change...Ultimately hopeful."
—The Washington Post
“An aching and poignant book, and one that’s pressing in its timeliness. It’s often devastating in its depictions of grief, especially the wider, harder to grasp grief of living in a world that has changed catastrophically…But it’s also a book about love, about trying to understand and accept the creatureliness that exists within our selves, and what it means to be a human animal, that we might better accommodate our own wildness within the world.”
—The Guardian
“Powerful…Vibrant…Unique…If worry is the staple emotion that most climate fiction evokes in its readers, Migrations—the novelistic equivalent of an energizing cold plunge—flutters off into more expansive territory…McConaghy has a gift for sketching out enveloping, memorable characters using only the smallest of strokes… Migrations, rather than struggle to convince readers of some plan of environmental action, instead puts humans in their place.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Thrilling…In piecing together who this mysterious protagonist really is, McConaghy creates a detailed portrait of a woman on the cusp of collapse, consumed with a world that is every bit as broken as she is. Migrations offers a grim window into a future that doesn’t feel very removed from our own, which makes Franny’s voice all the more powerful. In understanding how nature can heal us, McConaghy underlines why it urgently needs to be protected.”
—TIME
“A good nautical adventure…Migrations moves at a fast, exciting clip, motored as much by love for ‘creatures that aren’t human’ as by outrage at their destruction.”
—The Wall Street Journal
"[A] tantalizingly beautiful epic."
—Elle
“You can practically hear the glaciers cracking to pieces and the shrill yelps of the circling terns.”
—Vulture
“Suspenseful, atmospheric…As much a mystery as an odyssey.”
—Vogue
"Gorgeous…A personal reckoning that cuts right to the heart. This beautiful novel is an ode—if not an elegy—to an endangered planet and the people and places we love.”
—Literary Hub
"At a time when it feels like we’re at the end of the world, this novel about a different kind of end of the world serves as both catharsis and escape."
—Harper's Bazaar
"An ode to our disappearing natural world."
—Newsweek
“Migrations is a gripping tale that ultimately celebrates the beauty and resilience of the creatures—human and animal—that endure.”
—Sierra Magazine
“An exceptional novel that is both elegy and page-turning thriller.”
—Maclean’s Magazine
“[Migrations] could be taking place in two years or 20 years, but it could just as well be happening today…A consummate blend of issue and portrait, warning and affirmation, this heartbreaking, lushly written work is highly recommended.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“Transfixing, gorgeously precise…[The] evocation of a world bereft of wildlife is piercing; Franny’s otherworldliness is captivating, and her extreme misadventures and anguished secrets are gripping.”
—Booklist (starred review)
"Migrations is as beautiful and as wrenching as anything I've ever read. This is an extraordinary novel by a wildly talented writer."
—Emily St. John Mandel, author of The Glass Hotel and Station Eleven
"This novel is enchanting, but not in some safe, fairy-tale sense. Charlotte McConaghy has harnessed the rough magic that sears our souls. I recommend Migrations with my whole heart."
—Geraldine Brooks, author of The Secret Chord and March
"Migrations is a wonder. I read it in a gasp. There is hope in these pages; a balm for these troubled times. Charlotte McConaghy's words cut through to the bone."
—Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept
“An astounding meditation on love, trauma, and the cost of survival. A true force of a book that I read holding my breath from its start to its symphonic finish.”
—Julia Fine, author of What Should Be Wild
“Migrations is indeed about loss—but what makes it miraculous is that it is also about hope. Written in prose as gorgeous as the crystalline beauty of the Arctic, Migrations is deeply moving, haunting, and, yes, important.”
—Caroline Leavitt, author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World
“At times devastating and, at others, surprisingly, undeniably hopeful…Brimming with stunning imagery and raw emotion, Migrations is the incredible story of personal redemption, self-forgiveness and hope for the future in the face of a world on the brink of collapse.”
—Shelf Awareness