The unveiling of this story was carefully structured: a love story to nature and a love story for humanity; full of contemplation, grave mistakes, and forgiveness.

Set in a near-but-possibly-parallel universe, where extinction is the reality for the majority of our known species, where the last members of many species are dying, and the ramifications are the near complete obliteration of the animal world. It is a story in which body and mind, and the memory of body and mind prevail amid so much death.

I love McConaghy’s style. Her characters are deeply broken, emotional beings, desperately grasping at one last aspiration. They all have stories behind them which shape and mar their actions. They do stupid things from seemingly selfish motivations, but their true intentions are slowly uncovered, and we are left touched by the deep humanity of each life, of their stories, and we long to forgive them and offer a word of love, a whisper of hope.

The dual themes of eco-conservation and the redemption of broken humanity in McConaghy’s work keep me coming back to her stuff.