Literary Fiction · Free kit
Wild Dark Shore
Dominic Salt and his children Raff, Fen, and Orly are the last caretakers of Shearwater Island, a storm-cut rock near Antarctica that holds a global seed vault. Researchers have already left; the sea is coming for the buildings, the beaches, and the seeds. Then a woman named Rowan washes ashore, half-drowned, and the family's careful isolation starts to crack. McConaghy's 2025 novel is a climate-haunted mystery about grief, ferocious love, and the impossible work of choosing what to save.
“But here is the nature of life. That we must love things with our whole selves, knowing they will die.”
Complete free book club kit
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Plan your meeting
Wild Dark Shore Hosting Guide
A free, printable-minded plan for hosting Wild Dark Shore.
Invite hook
“A family on a disappearing island. A woman the sea delivers. A vault of seeds, and a storm that will not wait.”
The question you’re arguing about: If you could not save everything, how would you choose what to keep?
Shopping list
- □Hot chocolate for a cold-island night (Shearwater is not a lemonade-only book, but keep a pitcher of lemonade or juice too)
- □Coffee and tea — lighthouse-shift drinks for a long discussion
- □Sparkling water with lemon slices
- □A seeded loaf or seed crackers with butter and cheese (Orly's vault, without getting cute about it)
- □Hearty vegetable or chicken stew, served in mugs — the kind of supper you want after a storm, and a nod to Rowan cooking a huge meal to pull the Salts back to the table
- □Dark chocolate squares or oat cookies for the wrap-up
- □Navy or charcoal table runner, plus small glass jars of mixed dried beans and seeds as a centerpiece
- □Printed bingo cards, pens, and a box of tissues
Day-of timeline
- 0–10 minWelcome, hot chocolate or tea, and icebreakers (reader questions only)
- 10–20 minTrivia warm-up — start easy with the lighthouse and Fen's rescue, then the vault
- 20–55 minMain discussion: the locked hatch, Orly's radios and seeds, Fen's beach fire, and Rowan's last breath — pause if drowning or the Fen/Hank chapters need air
- 55–70 minWould You Rather or a speed debate (imprisoning Hank, or the ending's hope)
- 70–80 minBingo leftover squares, one-word ratings, vote on next month
Surprise touch
Set a small sealed envelope at each seat labeled with a plant from Orly's stories — dandelion, buzzy burr, banksia, Wollemi pine. Inside, one or two sentences on how that plant survives (wind, feathers, fire, hiding). Guests open them before discussion. It recreates the way Orly talks Rowan into caring, and it costs almost nothing to print.
Wrap-up
- □Group photo with the seed jars or the navy runner in frame
- □Quick rating: 1–5 stars and one word each (try to ban 'bleak' — make them work)
- □Vote on next month's book together