I’d be mad not to choose the birds with the longest flight. When I discovered that the Arctic terns have the longest migration of any animal in the world, flying from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again every year, I fell in love with them, and their journey became a kind of metaphor for the courage my protagonist would need for her own journey.

What inspired you to focus on them?Ĭharlotte McConaghy: I knew I wanted to write about migratory birds and a woman who was a bit migratory herself setting off to follow their migration, but it took me a little while (and a lot of research) to decide which birds would be the focus of this story. And both the country and the birds play important roles in Franny’s story. I think ultimately she’s more connected to her wild side than most of us, more creaturely, which means she feels the loss of the natural world keenly.Īmy Brady: Migrations brims with beautiful details of Greenland and the Arctic terns that live there. She’s constantly searching for a home place, a family, somewhere to belong, but unfortunately it’s her itchy feet and need to move and leave that makes it hard for her to sustain those things. I’m certainly not a wanderer myself, but I did grow up moving around a lot – I’d lived in 21 houses by the time I was 21 – so I know a little about being unsure where you belong, and that’s a big part of what drives Franny. She’s a lost soul and punishes herself for her wandering instinct. She’s made up of a lot of things I wish I could be more of – she’s incredibly brave, earthy, deeply connected to nature and free of ambition – and many things I’m glad I’m not. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and never miss a story.Ĭharlotte McConaghy: I think Franny just bubbled up from somewhere deep inside me. The climate is changing, and our journalists are here to help you make sense of it. Where did her character come from? Is she based on anyone in real life? In this interview, the author and I discussed what inspired the novel, what she hopes readers take away from it, and how she sees climate change impacting her own life.Īmy Brady: Franny Stone’s love of the natural world is quite moving. McConaghy links her protagonist’s personal pain to that of the natural world on the brink of destruction, creating a gorgeous, elegiac mosaic of loss. On her journey, Franny must confront her own fraught past. debut, “Migrations.” It tells the story of Franny Stone, who seeks out the last flock of Arctic terns in Greenland and then follows them on what might be their final migration. Case in point: Australian author Charlotte McConaghy’s transporting U.S. Media requests for Jeff Masters and Bob HensonĬlimate change may be a planet-wide problem, but novels about the subject can be deeply personal.

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy