
Synopsis
As read on BBC Radio 4
A Sunday Times Best Book of the Year
An Observer Best Debut of the Year
'Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment' - Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
'A joy . . . vivid, loving and genuinely funny' - The Sunday Times
'I didn't want it to ever end' - Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things
The Boy from the Sea is Garrett Carr's brilliantly moving tale of an abandoned baby who rocks a small Irish town, bringing together a community - and igniting lifelong rivalries.
Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson and Claire Keegan.
In 1973 on the west coast of Ireland, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Who is he? Where is he from?
Ambrose, a local fisherman, is far more interested in who he will become and – with a curious community looking on – takes the baby home and adopts him. But for Declan, the baby’s new brother, this arrival is surely bad news. Rivalries can be decades in the making . . .
Set over twenty years, The Boy from the Sea is about a restless boy trying to find his place, in a town caught in the storm of a rapidly changing world.
Readers love The Boy from the Sea:
'Left me feeling warm and satisfied when I finished it and I’ve thought about it daily since then' *****
'Books are meant to change you, to shape you, and to heal you, and The Boy from the Sea does all those things' *****
'You feel like you’re right there in the village' *****
'Stunning. I found myself waking up at 5am because I was desperate to read more' *****
'Felt like I was stepping off life's treadmill and immersing myself in another world' *****
Details
Reviews
Compulsive reading . . . Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment
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
A beautifully written, tragi-comic triumph
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