The Boy from the Sea
the heart-wrenching story of a family you won't want to leave behind
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4.7 • 6 Ratings
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- £8.99
Publisher Description
As read on BBC Radio 4
A Sunday Times Best Book of 2025
An Observer Best Debut of 2025
'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
In 1973 on the west coast of Ireland, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Who is he? Where is he from? What changes will he bring?
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, Garrett Carr’s The Boy from the Sea is about a restless boy trying to find his place in the world, and a town caught in the storm of a rapidly approaching future.
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' *****
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Carr (The Rule of the Land, a travelogue) serves up an enticing panorama of a small Irish fishing village transformed by the discovery of an infant abandoned in a barrel on the beach. Fisherman Ambrose Bonnar and his wife, Christine, take in the baby and raise him alongside their toddler, Declan. They name the boy Brendan and he becomes the talk of the townsfolk, who refer to him as "the boy from the sea" and are pleased when the Bonnars formally adopt him, even as the move causes a rift between Christine and her sister, who resents being left alone to care for their aging father. When the kids enter school, however, Declan distances himself from Brendan and ignores him. By the time Brendan is a preteen, he takes to going on long aimless walks around the village, during which he encounters residents who tell him their troubles and he gives them his blessings. The perspective continuously shifts from one character to another, and readers will wish for a bit more depth, especially when it comes to the one-dimensional Declan. Still, Carr manages to paint a colorful portrait of the townsfolk via their curiosity about Brendan's origins and their belief that he can help them. Readers will be hooked.
