Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Set in the future many of the world’s species are extinct. One of the last species of birds still in existence is the Arctic Tern. Fanny Stone has determined to follow the Arctic Terns on their final migration to Antarctica and talks herself onto one of the last remaining fishing boats heading south. However, on the journey, dark secrets from Fanny’s past start to unveil themselves, and Fanny has to confront her past and her fears as she fights through perilous waters in her desperate attempt to follow the Arctic Terns at any cost to see if they can survive this final migration or if they too will join the many species that are now extinct.

This book is marvellous. I felt every word. It is just so beautifully written and a truly immersive reading experience. The characters of Fanny and the side characters of the crew are layered, and their lives don’t just consist of the events in the story; you can tell that each character has a fully rounded out world of their own with the events in the book being just one part of their lives. The atmosphere is breathtaking, both in terms of the descriptions of the physical world in the book, and also emotively rich and deep. This book felt like a telling of real events that, as the reader, I felt like I was watching in real time. The writing is beautiful, with perfect consideration of pacing and action. There were no moments that felt like they were pushed together or dragged. It’s spectacularly well-written. I struggle to find fault in this book, even the ending left me in a sense of serene awestruck wonder.

If you love rich, atmospheric books with a rich, and engaging plot, this is the book for you. It has been seven months since I read this book, and I still think about it, which, considering how much I read, is saying something.

*Please note, I have seen other copies of the same book simply titled ‘Migrations’. I’m not sure why it’s printed under two different titles but it is the same book.

An intense and emotional read, The Last Migration is a tightly drawn character study of protagonist Franny while also exploring the wider issues of extinction, climate change and what we as humans have done to the world. It's a reflection on past decisions, relationships and everything in between and is quite unlike anything else I've read.

There's almost a mirroring of circumstances between Fran and the Arctic turns she seeks to follow. Both are the sad result of their past, and this voyage is the last time for both of them. In a world that has nothing left, Franny is just as emotionally empty and this trip is a chance for some redemption before everything ends. The writing is beautiful, subtle yet emotionally impactful, and I also really liked Franny's connection with the environment as well as the men she is with on the boat. They all have their own reasons for leaving the past behind.

Beautifully atmospheric and emotional, this is a sharp reminder that humanity isn't far away from destroy the beauty we have on the world, and every choice we make has consequences.

Utterly devastating - a future really not far from our own where we’re seeing the last of things we’ve driven to extinction. Beautiful lyrical writing

Totally moving and some of the most beautiful writing about heartbreak. I was absolutely immersed in it from the very first page and I'm recommending it to everyone I know who is worried about the future of our plant.

Wow, what a beautiful and melancholy story. I have seen plenty of praise for this book and it is richly deserved. It’s about the desire to keep moving even if doing so is self-destructive, Franny’s wandering urges echoed by the Arctic terns’ journey to feed even if the food is not there.

Franny’s instinct is to hate the people who fish for a living, taking the natural food away from dwindling wildlife and selling it to humans. She comes to love those she sails with, seeing that their love of the sea is something more than profit. It’s been their way of life and it is disappearing too. Her husband would have hated them, the flashbacks see him angry over humanity’s lack of compassion, its greed, his guilt.

I love cli-fi but this is the first one I’ve read where there has been a prevailing sadness over the loss of species. Each animal gone is mourned, not only the large and rarer mammals, but the common birds we see every day. The birds we often overlook. It really is heartbreaking.

The writing was beautiful but never got in the way of the story. Franny’s life before her migration is fed to us in small, fleeting chunks. The mystery of how she ended up on the fishing boat as much part of the draw as her impossible journey. And oh did I cry at the end, both with sadness and joy.

At times, she includes little snippets of conversations or news stories which help paint a picture of the state of the world. This is only a tiny niggle, but sometimes these declarations didn’t quite fit with the kind of life humans were still living. There is a waiting list for people to visit the remaining forests, and there isn’t enough time for everyone to do so. I felt that if global deforestation was that bad, there would have been a bigger impact. They are still drinking coffee of all things, a crop that is already under pressure from climate change.

I absolutely loved this book. It was so well written and captivating throughout. I thought this was an absolutely beautiful book. It was dark and haunting at times, with the beautiful scenery of a dying natural world influencing the narrative. It was thought provoking and heartbreaking at times too. It was a love story too, between Franny and Niall, but also between mankind and the wilderness and all it entails, the sea, wildlife and being free. The characters were not perfect, flaws were evident, but this made them all the more credible. The writing was so well selected, edited to perfection. I savoured every single word. I followed the journey along with these precious characters and will remember them for a long time to come. I give it 5 stars!!

Set in a near future where man has finally done his worst and the natural world is dying, this novel deals with heartbreak and loss. Franny, a desperately unhappy woman, hitches a lift on a fishing boat - one of the few still remaining - to follow the migration of some remaining Arctic terns on what will also be her own final journey, As the journey progresses, details of her past life leak out and we come to understand the grief that underpins her, and at least some of the reasons for her slippery coldness and her decision to be done with it all. If the ending, as is so often the case, is a bit too neat to fit perfectly with the mournful, elegiac rest, this is nonetheless a beautiful novel, and one I found both tender and painful.

In the increasingly distant pre-Covid past, prescient writers were addressing the great new threat to humanity as we know it and of course so much more. Environmental degradation is, in so many ways, becoming so extreme it is impacting on all species, the seas and the weather – a cycle that will lead to what is being described as mass extinction. Furthermore it is believed that the world is reaching a critical “tipping point” where this is irreversible. This novel is set not too far into the future where this reality is coming to truth. But it will be melded with the personal tales of others too, looking at their now, their past and possibly their futures too. So this is an intensely important novel that challenges readers about their own lives and values.
The key character and narrator, Franny Stone, is in Greenland to try and ring some Arctic Terns before their great annual migration to Antarctica. In this rapidly changing world she will manage to ring precisely three and then, with no money, no official support she plans to track them on this – potentially their last - trip. To do this she will need to gain access to a suitable ship and crew who can be persuaded to travel south on this unusual and risky odyssey and carry her, a stranger, too. She will find a strange captain and his eccentric multinational crew and persuade them to allow her to travel with them. But all of them fish for a living and so at first that has to take primary interest. Their paths may be similar initially, but then fishing is internationally banned and ships supposed to be harboured at risk of seizure. Nevertheless they illegally travel on, this time to Franny’s intentions, on her wild and risky journey until their camaraderie breaks down.
Without wishing to act as a spoiler it is fair to say that as the tale progresses Franny’s back story will also emerge gradually. Her mother was Irish, they lived in Australia, her father absent, but then her mother disappeared and she was fostered awhile by her grandmother. She lived alone in Ireland trying to recover her roots and understand her memories. But she has no real formal education, no career and little money. She will meet and marry an academic who is a “specialist” in environmental issues. Through this theme Franny – and the reader – comes to the understanding of risk to the world and other species and the “academic” response to dealing with the threat (including adaptive re-breeding and behaviour alteration).
This novel uses one woman to showcase both the practical implications – and the “official” responses to it, with the enactment of new laws, bans, procedures and other measures. But behind that we see people with a deep instinctive interest in the environment around them. But also, however well intentioned, the mini scale of their responses against this huge and monstrous threat to so much. The interlinking of the world, weather, sea and wildlife (of all species) are so interlinked that a seemingly simple action (in spite of how many times repeated before) might now have a massive destructive impact that rolls out and escalates in ways not intended. But behind that so many people will choose to continue their lives as now, until probably they are physically prevented from doing so.
But as Franny looks to the Arctic Terns through her own eyes she is also intent on exploring their innate instinct and behaviour and whether this will lead to species destruction or possible adaption and maybe survival. Ultimately she is looking to the key to her life and how she should live it, in what seems to her an alien world in which she does not comfortably fit. McConaghty’s suite of characters will show others who also choose to operate largely outside the norm. Life for all people is lived on a day to day basis, a matter of choices mostly small. But the world around us is large, increasingly complex and interlinked. All of us will have to live with the reality of our lives within a wider, fast changing, and increasingly at risk, world.

“… a recent study collating decades of data revealed that nearly a third of all birds — three billion creatures — have vanished from North America in just the last 30 years.” – according to the New York Times article about Scott Weidensaul’s new book A WORLD ON THE WING, The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds

With this sobering information as background, it’s difficult not to be affected by the premise of Charlotte McConaghy’s novel.

Franny Stone is on a dire quest to follow the migration of the last remaining colony of Arctic tern from Greenland to Antarctica – the longest migration undertaken by any animal. She is willing to sacrifice everything, cross oceans and risk her own and others’ lives to track them down and hopefully, to also find salvation for herself along the way.

Full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2021/03/30/the-last-migration-charlotte-mcconaghy/

Unusual and absolutely stunning novel! Writing was raw and haunting but absolute perfection in my eyes. An important highlight of global warming is brought to the forefront of your thoughts and it really made me think.

I absolutely fell in love with the characters, they were written so vividly!

Absolutely amazing book that I still think about.

Franny is determined to track the last Arctic terns on their final annual migration to Antarctica. As she follows them south on a trawler her own traumatic past is gradually revealed. Franny's searching for her mother who left her when she was young, her marriage is in difficulty and before she took on this journey a terrible tragedy occurred that she blames herself for. While her life appears to be falling apart so does the planet as the fish are disappearing from the sea, the birds are becoming extinct and so are the animals. Is there any hope to be had?
I really struggled with this book. It was very dark with a thread of grief woven through the whole story. What had attracted me to it was the fact that Franny was tracking the Arctic terns but really the book was about Franny's tragic life. I felt that the backdrop of the story was the extinction of so many species of wildlife but that was never really explained or focused on enough. There was a lot of violence and bad language that was upsetting and a scene with her and a girl that I felt was thrown in because that's what's fashionable at the moment rather than it actually contributing to the story. What I anticipated with this book and what I got were so very different that I was really disappointed. It's such a shame because if I knew what I was letting myself in for I would have realised that this was far too worldly for me and that I wouldn't enjoy it.

A beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking story. Set in the not-so-distant future, when humans’ selfishness and purposeful ignorance has depleted the world’s wildlife and animals have been driven from the planet. We follow Franny, and work backwards to fill in the gaps as her life unfolds to show her story, and nuances of character. A gorgeous character and a gorgeous read.

This is such a thought provoking book. It’s a story about climate change and its effects which I found so emotional, visceral and moving. It’s paints quite a grim picture of the future if we fail to act. It was very atmospheric and I would definitely recommend it.

A beautiful story, wonderfully descriptive with great characterisation.
A haunting and heartbreaking story that had me in its grip from the start, a warning perhaps of what may happen if we don't look after our fragile planet.
I found myself racing through it but at the same time I didn't want it to end.

Such a beautiful elegy to the disappearing world around us, full of the heartbreak we should all feel for the destruction we’re imparting on the planet and it’s inhabitants with every touch. Yet somehow still hopeful, that our brilliance, our creativity and determination might just be enough to stop it reaching its tipping point, if only we can see the gross impacts of our way of life. This should be read along science courses, politics and society too, read by politicians and all,of us who consume so much, as it’s message, that we must stop what we’re doing to the world, is so much stronger, real and immediate than most articles, reports and other books can impart. I’m truly in awe of Franny, and her author, for such a heartbreaking and restoring read. With thanks to the publisher for the advance reading copy

A gréât read that I originally had difficulty getting into but then found myself pulled in to a moving novel

This is a book you do not simply read. This is a book you feel - from the first to the very last page.. In my humble personal opinion, Charlotte McConaghy delivered a masterpiece. This review is also a love letter to her.

Rarely has a book affected me so very much. The story is set in out world in the not-so-distant future. Most of our wildlife has gone extinct due to humanity's focus on capitalism above anything, willfully ignoring the earth's cry for help. It is what might await us if we don't get climate change under control - and start to take it seriously, to begin with. A world in which we have killed the wild creatures that have roamed this planet for centuries. A lonely, desperate world. Franny is our protagonist, and one could argue she is one of the wild creatures herself. On a fishing boat, surrounded by a cast of endearing weird characters, she sets out to follow the possibly last Arctic terns on their possibly last migration ever before they face exctinction as well. From this present storyline, the book travels back to Franny's past at different points in her life, too, slowly painting a complex picture of a fascinating woman.

There are so very many emotions in this book. It is filled with the deepest sadness that comes with all these animals slowly dying because of us. Anger, too, anger and what we did to this world. But also hope, devotion, passion, the stubborn refusal to give up. Love for people, love for this world and its creatures. I cried and I laughed and I fell in love with Franny, with Ennis, with Léa and the rest of the colorful crew. McConaghy's writing is spectacular and draws the reader right in, makes them truly feel her words and everything in between. There is wonderful humour to balance out the tragedies which I deem necessary in a story that, because of its subject, could easily become a frustratingly bleak experience. McConaghy breathes life into a dead world and wraps it all in her at times almost lyrical prose. "Migrations", or "The Last Migration" which is the British title, is simply an astonishingly beautiful and well-written novel. A quiet one, a slow one, a deeply emotional one that will linger for a very long time. There is an atmosphere in this book that still hasn't left me.

Reading this book was an experience I won't forget.

Many, many thanks to Random House UK, Cintage Publishing and Netgalley for providing my arc and allowing me this unique experience.

This was a totally unexpected read.
Firstly, I loved the main plot regarding the migration of the Artic tern, as it was fascinating and heart wrenching to learn of their decline in numbers. I of course had to Google this to see how many birds were left in the wild.
However, the story was cleverly weaved within the story of the protaganist, a troubled woman who I couldn't help but love her passion and painful life. The dual timeline was a great addition to show both stories, although keeping track was a little difficult at times.
The twists at the end were brilliant, and I only worked it out on the previous page!
I loved this book, to me a great combination of literary fiction and a thriller.

The Last Migration by Charlotte Mcconaghy is hauntingly beautiful. it is set when global warming has rendered a lot of the animal species extinct. Franny undertakes a journey to follow the Arctic Terns on their Last migration and in doing so, unlocks the keys to her own personal journey.
I highly recommend this book.