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The Boy from the Sea (Hardback)
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The Boy from the Sea (Hardback)

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Hardback 336 Pages
Published: 06/02/2025
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Waterstones Says

From the author of The Rule of the Land comes a luminous and multilayered tale of happenstance, love and rivalry set on the West Coast of Ireland, as a fisherman's family adopts an abandoned baby found on a beach.

1973. In a close-knit community on Ireland’s west coast, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Named Brendan by Ambrose Bonnar, the fisherman who adopts him, the baby captivates the town and the boy he grows to be will captivate them still – no one can quite fathom Brendan Bonnar.

For Christine, Ambrose’s wife, Brendan brings both love and worry. For Declan, their son, his new brother’s arrival is the start of a life-long rivalry. And though Ambrose brings Brendan into his home out of love, it is a decision that will fracture his family and force this man – more comfortable at sea than on land – to try to understand himself and those he cares for.

Told over two decades, Garrett Carr's The Boy from the Sea is a novel about a restless boy trying to find his place in the world and a family fighting to hold itself together. It is a story of ordinary lives made extraordinary, a drama about a community who can’t help but look to the boy from the sea for answers as they face the storm of a rapidly changing world.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781035044535
Number of pages: 336
Weight: 442 g
Dimensions: 225 x 145 x 32 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

Compulsive reading . . . Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment - Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

Warm, funny, full of lightly worn wisdom and wit. In short, it is a joy . . . the power of Carr’s novel lies in the contrast between its warm hilarity and the cold truths those jokes contain . . . vivid, loving and genuinely funny - The Sunday Times

A beautifully written, tragi-comic triumph - Sunday Independent

A novel of heart-bumping power and sparkling vividness. This is a strange, beautiful, truly compelling triumph, a story about a very specific place that somehow comes to seem an everywhere and a people who feel familiar as faces in mirrors. A breathtaking achievement - Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea and My Father's House

A tremendous story about a family changed by the arrival of a strange boy, which feels like an instant classic . . . huge hearted, masterful . . . Told in a captivating communal voice like nothing I've ever read before . . . The Boy from the Sea is a dazzling exploration of the ties that make and bind us - Lauren Brown, The Bookseller, Book of the Month

A ruefully funny portrait of a dysfunctional family in a struggling town, The Boy from the Sea rings painfully true. I was gripped - Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room

Beautifully written - gorgeous modern folklore - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater

Stunning - Good Housekeeping

Outstanding . . . one of those beautiful books that soothe the soul - Prima Magazine

The Boy from the Sea is an utterly engrossing read. Atmospheric and incredibly moving, I was captivated by the trials and triumphs of the Bonnars. A bittersweet ballad of a novel I'll be thinking about for a very long time - Jan Carson, author of The Raptures

The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr captures the changing feelings and textures of the latter decades of the twentieth century in Ireland more precisely than any other recent novel I could name. Its language and sensibility reflects the sly humour of its Donegal setting, and the reader is riveted by the heroic efforts of its characters to hold on to one another in the face of gale-force winds of historical change - Niamh Mulvey, author of The Amendments

An original and rambunctious Irish seafaring novel that vividly portrays a community moving through changing times and tides—as lively a portrait as it is convincing. With a refreshing narrative approach, The Boy From the Sea excels in its clarity and particularity of voice - Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives

The Boy from the Sea has that rare quality I often find myself searching for in a novel – narrative intimacy among the vastness of life. Garrett Carr is meticulous and precise in his writing – the skilled invisibility of a true craftsman - Rónán Hession, author of Ghost Mountain

The Boy from the Sea is a single-generation family saga as dazzlingly compact as it is comprehensively insightful, a love story in which the tenderness and forbearance are all the more moving for the eloquence with which the hardships and reticence are rendered. This is as impressively wise and idiosyncratic a novel as I’ve read in years - Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron

A lyrical, beautifully written portrait of a place and its people - Mail on Sunday

Lyrical - The i

Hypnotic . . . Carr has a terrific knack for detail, both poetic and quotidian . . . This is a surprising, tender and warm-hearted novel about a real place and real people: a gentle gift for spring - The Guardian

The son of a Killybegs fisherman, Carr writes from knowledge and reflects with good humour on his characters' inability to understand themselves . . . plenty of emotion and feeling - Daily Mirror

Charming . . . humorous . . . a fresh perspective - Financial Times

Wry, observant, various and thoughtful, this novel does something only art can - Irish Times

Expansive and intimate, funny and warm . . . it carries a cargo hold full of feeling beneath decks - The Herald

Beautifully observed, funny and poignant. I didn't want it to ever end - Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

A delectably warm, communal voice through which the reader bears witness to one family’s most private moments - The Observer

A mesmerising, meditative debut; reminiscent of John McGahern and Jon McGregor - Irish Independent

This stunning literary offering holds your heart in its hands from the first page to the last. Masterfully crafted, mischievous and moving - The Courier

Charming . . . a quiet meditation on how family, community and industry intertwine around the bountiful but perilous Atlantic . . . Carr’s biggest strength lies in capturing the fishbowl quality of small-town life - The List

In Conversation: Garrett Carr

In Conversation: Garrett Carr

Belfast
Thursday 20th February 19:00 - 20:30

Irish writer Garrett Carr will be in-store celebrating the release of his debut novel The Boy From the Sea, set in a fishing village in the west coast of Ireland.

View
Irish Voices: Caoilinn Hughes and Garrett Carr in conversation with Suzi Feay

Irish Voices: Caoilinn Hughes and Garrett Carr in conversation with Suzi Feay

London - Islington
Wednesday 19th March 18:30

A fiercely witty, unforgettable portrait of a family perched on our collective precipice, from one of Ireland’s most gifted storytellers, and a sparkling, huge-hearted debut about a restless boy trying to find his place in the world while a family fights to hold itself together. Join us with Caoilinn Hughes and Garrett Carr, in conversation with Suzi Feay, to get your Irish fiction fix for 2025.

View

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Romany

“Fishermen’s Friends”

A gentle tale, looking into the lives of the fishing community in the Donegal area of Ireland. A baby boy, later named Brendan, is found abandoned and shortly afterwards adopted by Ambrose and Christine Bonnar, as a... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 5

“Gently and slyly humorous, magical”

Sigh … I have finished ‘The Boy from the Sea’ and I wish I hadn’t. Garrett Carr takes the lives of a small community on the coast of Ireland and creates a magical tapestry. In small town Ireland, everyone knows who... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 3

“A lovely read.”

A lovely novel, set in a small fishing community in Donegal and full of interesting characters. I loved Ambrose, not forgetting Christine, he is strong and has a depth of character. Set over two decades, starting in... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 2

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