Date: 24 May 2026
Location: Pat & Carol
Eleven bookers met on a drizzly Sunday afternoon at Pat & Carol’s to discuss Charlotte McConaghy’s novel Migrations. This was actually the second novel by McConaghy that the Bookers have read; the first was Once There Were Wolves which we read back in July 2022. The earlier read apparently did not make a very strong impression on us, however, and most of us could not recall anything about the book. Nevertheless, I believe that we generally liked it better than we did Migrations.
The novel’s setting is the ‘near-future’ when much of the environment has been destroyed and many bird and mammal species driven to extinction or nearly so. Franny, on parole from prison, decides to follow the migrations of the last remaining arctic terns on their migrations from the artic to antarctica.
Of course, this turns into a series of misadventures and dreadful events. Some of us enjoyed the story and others did not – finding it both absurd and depressing. I actually began to sort of enjoy it – trying to anticipate what sort of ridiculous thing was going to come up next. We realize that to enjoy science fiction (which this novel borders on) requires a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’, but this didn’t work so well and Franny’s problems became almost campy for some of us.
While the book itself was not a favorite for all of us, the fine barbecue dinner after the discussion was definitely liked by all.
— Bob