Eco-Fiction on Whiddy Island: Charlotte McConaghy & Eva Meijer

Charlotte McConaghy’s Wild Dark Shore features a family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A storm gathering force. Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny weather-lashed island that is home to the world’s largest seed bank. As Shearwater risks being lost to rising sea levels, the island’s researchers have fled, and only the Salts remain. Until, during the worst storm in living memory, a stranger washes ashore. The family nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, but it seems she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she’s there. And when Rowan stumbles upon sabotaged radios and a recently dug grave, she realises that she’s not the only one on the island with a secret. Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love. 

The country, in Eva Meijer’s novel Sea Now, is flooding. Every day the sea claims another kilometre of land. The prime minister holds a daily press conference. Scientists try to find an explanation, without success. Sheep drown in the fields, weighed down by their waterlogged fleeces. The museums are emptied of their valuable works. Some people stay. Most leave. Once the evacuation is complete, and the rest of the world is already moving on, a climate activist, a young poet and an oceanographer voyage across the new sea. They are drawn back into the heart of a changed nation, seeking what they have lost in the deluge. 

This event is supported by Creative Places West Cork Islands and Cork County Council and is part of New Dutch Writing, supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature.