'The Last Migration' held my attention, and it is beautifully written, yet it's also... too writerly. Too unrealistic.

I got frustrated very early on with the author's primary school-ish brand of environmentalism. Many species have died out, including wolves and crows. There are essentially no birds and no fish left. Which would be more believable if the story took place in an apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic world, hellish and unrecognisable. Instead, things are actually... like normal. There's no mention of most of the world except for drought in Africa, but life seems pretty great in Ireland and Canada! Everyone has enough food to eat and still cares about things like going to university. Except, scientifically speaking, if we get to a point where even generalist species like crows have died out - we would not be OK. Nowhere in the world would be remotely OK.

Now that I've got that off my chest, let's get to the other element of the novel that made me roll my eyes. Franny Stone, our protagonist, brings a new meaning to "wandering feet". I assume the novel is not meant to be magical realism - it tries very hard to ground itself fully in our world - but Franny, her mother and grandmother all appear to be afflicted with a "curse" (the author's word, not mine) that means they simply cannot stick around the people they love. I couldn't relate to this whatsoever. It was meant to come off as strangely romantic, but it simply came off as silly and more than a little pretentious.

I've given three stars because, as I said, the writing is quite beautiful; there's also a neat twist that feels like a hard and soft blow all at the same time. But I wish the realism, most importantly the environmental realism, had been treated with greater respect and care.

(With thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review)

DISCLAIMER : Thank you, Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and Chatto & Windus for providing me with an ARC of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Charlotte McConaghy brings us a beautifully poignant and heart-wrenching story that will grip you and move you beyond your imagination through The Last Migration. I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up. So, imagine my surprise when it managed to exceed my expectations and broke my heart in the process. I am an emotional mess after reading this and still feel the sadness carving deeper into my heart. You need to keep a box of tissues at hand if you are planning to read this one.

The story is set in the distant future, where our planet has undergone drastic transformations due to climate change with disappearing wildlife and other life forms. Franny, our protagonist is determined to track the progress of the Arctic Terns when they make their migrations to Antarctica. This rigorous journey is believed to be their last migrations and Franny wants to follow them to their final destination. With the fishes also disappearing at a rapid rate, the birds and their species are also slowly dying out from lack of food. To watch over the Arctic Tern's progress, she seeks the help of a fishing crew, who later on becomes her family of sorts. The story takes us through her journey on the ship in the present. It also slowly unveils the trauma and secrets Franny has experienced in her life. Her past is the reason she is on this path, and we follow her as she decides to make the last migration with the birds. Can Franny succeed in making the trip?? Will she be able to protect the birds??

Overall, this was a splendid reading experience. I loved reading every second of it. If you like traveling and love stories about the environment and nature, this is the one I would highly recommend picking up. I heard that it is going to be adapted and it makes me equal parts nervous and excited. A hearty congratulations and a huge thank you to the author for the success of the book and for giving us readers a story that will stay in our hearts forever. I gave the book 5 stars and go pick it up!! I mean, now !!! Please!! This is my first 5 stars reads for 2021 and it's a strong contender. Also The Last Migration has me into my all time favorites, just wanted you to know.😊

The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy is ethereal; slipping endlessly between worlds of bleak environmental prospects and those of grim emotional prospects and eroding the boundaries between nature and what it means to be human. Trapped on an ocean of grief, Franny navigates the world accompanied by the crew of a fishing trawler, attempting to track the last migration of the Arctic terns in a world ravaged by climate change. Along the way, we discover her tragic story of loss and accompany her on her desperate journey to find closure, a journey of discovery that we become so entangled with that the book can’t be put down; every line bringing a fuller colour of emotion to the cold grey surroundings.
McConaghy’s style of writing here can be summed up in one word: beautiful. The words flow effortlessly from one page to the next encapsulating the melancholia running deep in the novel, wrenching those who follow them from despair to anguish and from suspense to catharsis. Despite the frigidity of its tone, the book brings emotion to the reader through its detailed exploration of Franny’s psyche. With an incredibly touching and respectful exploration of trauma, we experience crawling back from the abyss and coping with grief in vivid detail. We see family and relationships in full definition, and the damage that the lack of them or even the inclusion of them can cause. The strength of humanity in the face of hopelessness, and the determination to continue against all odds become key, even as we understand Franny’s motivations further.
There couldn’t be a more perfect symmetry between the theme of the novel and its impact. The harsh and cold ocean reflects on the tone of the novel and the desolate and harsh weather is personified in its emotion. Loneliness from the extinction of animals mirrors itself in Franny’s loneliness on her quest, migration manifests itself as Franny’s wandering personality, desperation in protecting the vulnerable could almost be seen to represent the loss of those who Franny loves. The story becomes so much more than just a commentary about climate change, but it imprints onto our ideas about the state of the environment, with initial desperation turning into hope.
Honestly, I had great difficulty writing this review because I didn’t think I could do the magic of The Last Migration true justice, and I don’t think I did. The book becomes engrained in one’s emotions, the melancholia seeping through us so that we feel almost everything that Franny feels. We become part of the story, learning more about our own past as Franny does, waking up from dreams through the flashbacks, and being driven constantly towards a resolution by an endless determination to see through our quest. I’m not really one for “sad” books, but McConaghy has penned a true masterpiece here - one which will stand the test of a time as an adventure discovering the place of humanity in the world.
Many thanks to Charlotte McConaghy, Random House UK Vintage Books and Netgalley for providing an ARC for the Last Migration.

So, this book. Wow. I nearly let this one pass me by suspecting it would be too depressing for me. I would have been missing out. It is pretty depressing – it’s wild, raw and brutal – but it’s beautiful and incredibly original too. This author has managed to pack in an epic journey both metaphorical and literal into less than 300 pages. It’s dark, compelling and powerful.

In the near future, natural wildlife is dying out. This could feel like a flashy, edge-of-your-seat dystopian thriller in the hands of a different writer, but it’s not that at all. The world McConaghy has created feels entirely realistic, the loss of animals a slow, creeping but inevitable turn of events that the majority of humans accept as nature taking its course.

Franny, and her husband Niall, are a little different to most. Despite their many differences, they connected over their passion for birds and wildlife. But the book follows Franny alone, on a journey to follow a group of Artic terns on their last migration.

“Once, when the animals were going, really and truly and not just in warnings of dark futures but now, right now, in mass extinctions we could see and feel, I decided to follow a bird over an ocean.”

I don’t want to go into detail on the plot of this one, as it’s really something you should read and feel for yourself. It’s an epic adventure of discovery, spanning Ireland, Australia and the Artic sea and every continent is beautifully imagined. It’s a homage to nature and a look at the effects of humanity on wildlife.

But mostly it’s an exploration of people, of secrets, of romance and the darker side of love. Franny has an extremely complicated, troubled past, she’s haunted by nightmares and she struggles to commit and stay in one place for too long.

“My life has been a migration without a destination, and that in itself is senseless. I leave for no reason, just to be moving, and it breaks my heart a thousand times, a million.”

Despite being a wanderer, her life is full of love and the book is full of touching, authentic relationships. She builds relationships with the motley crew of fishermen who take her on their ship for their epic voyage. The story also looks back at her relationships with her family and her husband Niall and the mysteries of her past are gradually revealed.

All the relationships in this book are complicated – sometimes destructive, sometimes beautiful, reflecting the relationship between mankind and nature. It all comes together to make something special and unique. 100% recommended for anyone who wants to try something different – but be prepared for a dark, harrowing ride.

She’s frozen and her tent has blown away but after six days Fran has finally banded her third. Her intention is to follow the migration of Arctic terns as they flee their breeding ground in Greenland and head to their winter quarters in the Antarctic Circle. These birds complete the longest migration of any animal and they complete it twice each year, as they’ll head back again in around six months. Their annual milage is calculated to be in excess of forty thousand miles and it can take up to three months to complete each journey. Fran plans track them on her laptop computer as they fly south, but for her this is to be a one way trip. The only problem is, at this moment she has no way of getting access to a boat that will transport her on this crusade.

This might be the last migration of the these small but strong and brave birds. Global warming has taken its toll and the world’s animal life has been almost completely eradicated. It’s thought that in a few years forests will be gone too. Fran’s only hope is to beg a lift on one of the last fishing boats setting out in an attempt to hunt for the few fish that are left in the sea. She has a plan, the terns will need to feed at some point in their journey and that’s where the fish will be, the birds will find them. She believes this will be far south, well outside the normal fishing grounds.

Fran gets lucky when she manages to convince the captain of a fishing vessel who is desperate for one more big catch. She is a woman of few words, but she’s as strong and determined as the birds she plans to follow and is willing to take on any task to earn her passage on the boat. The crew are a mixed bag of sea dogs who largely resent her presence and the captain is pretty much invisible as he limits his movements to the boat's cabin and his own quarters. It’s going to be a tough journey but we start to learn, in flashbacks, that Fran's life has always been a difficult one. Her past is laid out in small, often cryptic, episodes. Born in Ireland but then transported to Australia, only to find her way back to the land of her birth some years later. We know she married but initially we know little of her husband or how they met. She’s a free spirit: a wonderer, a searcher… a leaver.

The journey is indeed a fraught one and all sorts of problems abound. It seems doubtful that they will be able to achieve either of their goals but through adversity comes respect and slowly Fran does at least forge an unlikely affinity with this motley group. And as a reader I had, by now, become close to them all. There is a good deal of darkness here both in the present and in the past but the characters are each, in their own way, compelling. I so want them to succeed, for some light to appear through the murk.

This is a tale about climate change and its effects, it’s an account of an epic journey and, above all, it’s Fran’s story. The deeper I got into this book the more eager I was to understand more clearly what it was that was driving this woman. I’d learned a lot along the way but there were still holes in the past that needed filling. My emotions were moving from sad to hopeful and then to near despair. The ending, when it comes, will satisfy some and disappoint others – such is the way with these things. In truth, I’m still fully processing how I feel about it.

It is a brilliantly written book by a talented Australian author. It packs a punch on many levels and I fully expect, and truly hope, that it’ll be a major success.

This book is different from anything I've read recently. Set in the near future where climate change escalated to the point that most animal species are extinct and seas and oceans are depleted. The main character, Franny Lynch, who's been always fascinated by birds, travels to Greenland to track down the last flock of Arctic terns. Franny is a complex character, a wanderer with dark secrets, always seeking what cannot be found. Franny's twisted past is progressively revealed to us filling in the holes and question marks over her actions.

I have to admit I wasn't sure about this book at first and found it slow and bleak, but as I started learning of Franny's marriage, her mother and the time in prison, I suddenly couldn't read fast enough.

Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy is set in a future where more of nature has become extinct.

Franny Stone needs to follow the last of the Artic Terns on the migration that could be their last, all the way to Antarctica.

We are taken on flash backs on her life to see how she has been led here, to trying to get aboard one of the last fishing boats, and be able to follow the Terns, who will be following fish.

This is a very emotive book, with beautiful descriptions of the scenery.  I enjoyed the story, and the journey we are taken on.  It's a sad future with so few animals in the world, which I hope we don't ever see.

 The Last Migration  by Charlotte McConaghy was published on 28th January 2021, and is available to buy from  Amazon ,  Waterstones  and  Bookshop.org .

You can follow Charlotte McConaghy on  Twitter ,  Facebook  and her  website .

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Random House .

A wonderful book, as single-minded and unusual as its heroine is. Franny is a woman with a fragmented past and as unreliable in telling her own story as a narrator ever was.

Passed from one relative to another as a child, left looking for her lost past as a young woman and, following unbearable tragedy, a woman determined to follow her own fate and honour her husband.

Such a poignant story as Franny finds a way to dovetail the last migration of the arctic tern with a last migration of her own. I loved the characters she meets along the way, the desperate actions she is driven to take, and the encounters she has in a near-future where animals are a rare and beautiful sight.

And the clarity and coldness in the ending is just the icing on the cake - a totally modern and enjoyable, haunting book.

The Last Migration is a beautiful, heart wrenching book that is ultimately filled with hope. This already has a firm place in my top ten favourite books of 2021, despite it only being January. Read it!

Franny Stone, the unreliable narrator of this story, with a penchant for wandering, is a fragile lady who grew up in a dysfunctional family, mainly with her mother, when her father deserted his family. Her mother had mental health issues and departed this world early, at a time of her own choosing. Franny was then sent across the world to Australia to be in the dubious care of her Grandmother, whom she left as soon as she was able to, to travel back to her homeland of Ireland, where she got a job as a cleaner in a university.
She had always loved birds and one day she decided to sit in on a lecture given by the Professor of Ornithology Niall Lynch. Immediately she was transfixed. She loved learning about birds and so her passion was nurtured. She and Niall met outside the university campus, fell in love and were quickly married. To begin with she controlled her wanderlust, but eventually Niall agreed to her trips, keeping in contact as well as he was able to. After all, she always came home to him. Then one day she decided to take action and do what she had a passion for. She decided to visit Tasiilaq in Greenland where Arctic Terns were known to flock prior to their migration to Antarctica.
Franny lived in the near future to our modern days, on an Earth that had been spoilt by the apathy of the humans and their wanton behaviours. Despite endless warnings about the necessity of species conservation and with it the protection of wildlife and planet Earth, the Red List had already lost most of animal kind: the fish in the ocean, birds in the sky; the animals of both plains and deserts: the lot of them now gone for good and probably soon forgotten. Niall had recently told her that this year may well be the last migration of the plucky Arctic Terns. Franny was devastated and thereby a plan emerged. Franny’s aim was to follow their migration. She was fascinated by this species because she knew their migration was the longest migration in the history of the natural world.
Franny had even managed to secure a passage on a fishing vessel soon due to leave Greenland, after persuading the Captain of the ‘Saghani’, Ellis Malone that the Terns fed on the wing, hunting down the shoals of fish and feasting on them to enhance their energy levels en route to Antarctica. She reasoned with Ennis that if they followed the migration he could catch the fish the hungry Terns found, so he would definitely get a bumper catch. This is the compelling story of the journey from the north to the south, following the tracking of the Arctic Terns.
This is a wonderful debut novel for UK readers. This very talented young author from Australia had undergone meticulous research to add authenticity to her sweeping, globetrotting novel. Her characters are eclectic, interesting and beautifully crafted. Her storyboard fizzes with excitement and terror. It gripped me, tugged at my heart and amazed me all at the same time. This mammoth journey was terrifying, dangerous and totally absorbing. The pace varied a little but overall the action was dynamic and with lyrical and detailed descriptions of the settings. It held me spellbound and never once could I have predicted the shocking outcome. With issues of love, loss, criminality, loyalty, passion and bravery I hate to mention ‘dystopian’ in my review because this story is full of hope and self-belief. Yes sometimes dark and full of doom, but never with an outright lack of hope.
My thanks to publisher Vintage Digital and to NetGalley who arranged for reviewers and also to author Charlotte McConaghy who envisaged this dramatic and fascinating novel. It’s a 4.5* review from me and the recommendation that this is a superb and terrifying read, one not to be forgotten or missed.

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC.

I had a lot of feelings when I went through this book. Fanny is incredibly complicated, her mother went missing when she was a child, she sleepwalks, her husband has left her, and father is gone, and she's managed to get on board one of the last few vessels still out their fishing in the face of the extinction of all the fish in the sea to follow a bird on what they know will be its last migration. We also get to see the impulse in her to wander; anywhere and everywhere and its implied to be the end of her marriage.

But that's really not it. It's later revealed to us that her mother didn't disappear, but had handed herself when Fanny was 10 when she disappeared for a couple of days (horrifying ). she has to tie her hands to the bed because she tried to strangle her husband (who she really loves) in her sleep, She's lost her toes to frostbite while sleep walking, and has caused a lot of damage to people around her. At some point we think she's killed three people (albeit, one of them in self defense).

I'm beginning to understand the importance of fantasy just a bit more here; that ability to let go and believe and know that what feels right is the right answer; that there are things we need to do even though they hurt us. Fannys needs to wander, to leave, to look. Despite having love this still stays necessary, the same way it was necessary in the 'The Ten Thousand years of January'; but over there it was celebrated. Here, in this very hopeless story, this attempt to record what will be gone forever, this last act of bearing witness, you can see the marks that it leaves on others. That these adventures are cruel, that we hurt those with us and those we leave behind. We're not okay, but something just doesn't tick the right way in one place. This need to wander is as ugly as it is beautiful.

I was really prepared to hate her husband, and in her flashbacks watch their marriage fall apart; genuinely taken aback by what happens there. I'm sure some people will have seen that coming; the holes in her spry Of course this book ends in hope; we're all living in the aftermath of a pandemic caused by us not leaving things well enough alone; all we have is that.

Wow. This was powerful, raw and gripping. Such a strong, yet damaged, main character. I found it utterly devastating and utterly compelling.

Brilliant, I loved it and can’t recall when I last read such a riveting story. I was particularly drawn to this novel, being also a sea lover and wanderer.

I would not wish to spoil the pleasure of reading this book by others, so will make no attempt to provide a synopsis.

Charlotte McConaghy has created an incredibly strong free spirited character to highlight the impact of climate change with its devastating effect on the extinction of species. This novel is a reminder to all to observe and appreciate our surroundings and the beauty of all it contains.

Lovely descriptive narrative prose, sensitive, well crafted and violent, which has been well researched. It is a thriller, travelogue and love story, beautifully blended .

This novel just gets better and better, and I look forward to reading McConaghy’s next novel.

Pretty amazing that this is a debut novel. It is well written, in fact beautifully written and totally original. Great characters and plot. If you are looking for a book that stands out from the crowd pull up a seat you have found the right book. I won't say too much because any potential reader is in for a real treat and will enjoy discovering this little gem for themselves.

I can see why a lot of people would love this book, the writing is beautiful and the story incredibly harrowing. However, I could not get on board with our main character Franny. Rather than feel sympathetic towards her I found her to be quite irritating and so for me that took away from my overall feelings on the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A homage to the ocean and its wildlife. Franny Stone is an ornithologist in a future time, perhaps not so far away, when many creatures face extinction due to man's domination of the natural world. As she follows Arctic terns on their long journey to Antarctica, her tumultuous past life and the reason for her restless travels unfolds. A gripping and moving tale of love and survival against the odds, for both her and the terns. A story that will stay with you.

In a future not too far, most wild animals are extinct and fishing has been banned as the oceans are almost empty.
In this haunting and emotional novel, fierce and determined Franny is desperately trying to follow the long migration of the last artic terns while coming to terms with her past.
Beautifully written and heartbreaking.

I should start by saying that this is not the sort of book that I would normally read, but that is why I joined NetGalley - to read things out of my normal genre etc. I did find the style of writing a little hard going at times, but that was probably me, rather than the book itself.

However, I was intrigued enough to keep going with it and I'm very glad that I did. I am a birdwatcher so the premise of the story caught me, even if not really in a good way as it was talking about the arctic terns being the last birds on earth to survive. The story does jump around quite a bit so you need to ensure that you know where you are to understand what is happening. Events and mentions that are a complete mystery when first seen are gradually revealed as the story proceeds and everything slots into place.

I would recommend this book; though I felt I had to work at reading it, it might well not be like that for other people. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to review this book in exchange for an honest review, which is what I have given.

The Last Migration was one of my favorite reads of 2020 and will go down as one of my most treasured books of all time. My only regret is that I waited so long to read it... I was foolishly put off by the bird migration topic but finally caved... and delighted in EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. I found myself racing through the pages, yet not wanting the story to end. The writing is brilliant... atmospheric, visceral, heart-breaking, powerful, and achingly beautiful. I’m not the type to reread books, but this one I’m already longing to revisit.

5/5 stars, New all-time Favourite

“It isn’t fair to be the kind of creature who is able to love but unable to stay.”

I write this review, cheeks flushed in shame, as it's taken me so long to finally write a dedicated review of this book. It wasn't for a lack of enjoyment: on the contrary. I’ve owned 2 copies of this book (an ARC and a pre-ordered finished copy) since September, I’ve gifted this book to 3 other people, and I’ve included it in my Favourites of 2020. Yet everytime I try write a coherent review, I royally fail to pen down my feelings about this extraordinary feat of a novel.
This novel is a combined narrative of both a woman and a world at the brink of collapse. We follow Franny Stone, who talks her way onto a northbound fishing vessel as an ornithologist to follow the last migration of the few remaining arctic sterns she’s been studying for years. As the shores disappear behind the horizon, and the inhospitable arctic ocean is all around them, we slowly get to know the crew and Franny herself; each of them scarred by life and the elements, and each chasing more than simply birds of fish alone.
Although I enjoyed the story that was being told, I adored the way it was being told. Charlotte McConaghy’s prose and talent for storytelling are striking. At times flowing like a steady undercurrent, at times jostling you about like knobbly waves of an ocean storm. Emotional punches vicious as the arctic wind and profound in their haunting echo’s.
It’s rare for me to feel emotions as strong as the ones I did reading this book. Although very flawed, Franny is one of my favourite and most well-written characters of the year, and her journey is one so laced through with raw emotion that I couldn’t help but relate to her. It covers grief, passion turned obsession, unrest and homesickness, and the desperation to stay even though every instinct tells you to run.

Not only is this a new all-time favourite novel for me personally, it’s also the literary fiction book I’ve recommended the most (within just these past few months) out of all the ones I read this year. Please, if you enjoy provocative prose and deeply atmospheric “cold-ocean-settings”: you should read it. If you enjoy nature writing combined with an intimate character portrait of a person carrying the weight of their past on their shoulders: you should read it. If you’re a fan of Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behaviour or Abby Geni’s The Lightkeepers: what are you waiting for, here’s your next favourite.

Many thanks to Flatiron Books for putting this gem into the world, and in my hands! I cannot wait to see what their catalogue, as well as this author bring next.