The Boy from the Sea
A Novel
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3.7 • 19 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Set on Ireland’s west coast in the 1970s and 80s, a captivating debut novel about a baby boy who is discovered on the beach beside a small fishing town, as told by the locals who fall under the boy’s transfixing spell.
"Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment."—Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
Ireland 1973, a baby boy is found on the beach of a close-knit fishing village. Fisherman Ambrose Bonnar offers to bring the child into his own family: his son, Declan, wife, Christine, and up the lane, Christine's sister and aging father. The townspeople remain fascinated by the baby, now named Brendan, as he grows into a strange yet charismatic young man.
The Boy from the Sea tells the story of a family and community, all thrown into turmoil by Brendan’s arrival. The family's fortunes rise and fall over the years—as do the town's, because nothing happens to one family here that doesn't happen to them all—as the forces of a voracious global economy and modernized commercial fishing wreak havoc on their way of life. In the village, Brendan and Declan are wildly different and often wildly at odds; out on the sea, Ambrose worries about his children, but cannot afford to tear his attention from the brutal work that keeps his family afloat. As the world around them keeps changing, the mystery of one boy’s origins pulls them all toward a surprising, stormy fate.
Both outrageously funny and incredibly moving, The Boy from the Sea is a dazzling novel from a major new voice in Irish literature.
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.
