Watch ‘Migrations’ author Charlotte McConaghy live from Australia

Australian author and screenwriter Charlotte McConaghy joined Los Angeles Times Book Club readers on Feb. 24to discuss “Migrations,” a novel set in a near-future fraught with extinctions.

McConaghy was in conversation with environmental reporter Rosanna Xia in a virtual event livestreaming on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In a recent interview, McConaghy said she was inspired to write a novel focused on climate change during a trip to Iceland. The minute she got home to Sydney in 2016, she started writing and continued for the next 2½ years.

When making her first foray into adult fiction, the young-adult writer knew her story’s harsh reality needed to be tempered with a gripping plot — and a glimmer of hope that all is not lost.

Australian author and screenwriter Charlotte McConaghy and environmental reporter Rosanna Xia.

(Los Angeles Times)

“I wanted to energize people and myself to come out of the other side of despair and apathy and into a place of hope, love and action,” she says.

“Migrations” has drawn praise from reviewers for its powerful discussion of climate issues. The novel’s plot twists also have attracted Hollywood: Claire Foy and Benedict Cumberbatch are adapting the story for film.

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