Boy from the Sea

Peta's Review 

Garret Carr is the author of several YA novels, and this debut adult novel The Boy from the Sea is a gem. A teacher in creative writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre at the University of Belfast, Carr is also a frequent contributor to The Guardian and The Irish Times.

The Boy from the Sea begins in 1973, with the arrival of a baby boy, washed up on the shore of a little Irish fishing village called Killybegs. The baby is discovered by Mossey Shovlin, the village itinerant, who we are told by the unnamed narrator carried the baby through the village as if this was his sole purpose in life. The baby soon becomes the focus of the village, passed from family to family, until it is adopted by Ambrose Bonnar and his wife. Ambrose names the baby Brendan, after the saint known as the Navigator, the patron saint of sailors. However, the family is not entirely blessed; from the outset, the Bonnar’s son Declan regards the baby as an interloper, and as time passes, we can see that his growing resentment will not necessarily bode well.

The story of Brendan’s growing up is also the story of how a small community tries to contend with the modern world. 1973 was the year in which Ireland joined the European Union, and what followed was a decade of economic hardship. As the “we” of the novel – the narrative the voice of the community - tells us: “So far the 1980s weren’t treating many of us well.” But for the people of Killybegs, community is everything: resources are pooled and mucking in is just what you did. Brendan is no ordinary boy, either, becoming for the villagers a kind of secular saint, appearing to give blessings to the villagers in need. He is just what the villagers need to reassure them all will be well. It is this particular strand of the narrative which gives the book its magic and lightness.

If you enjoyed Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, then The Boy from the Sea is a must read. It is a warm, tender novel about people you will come to care about, willingly walk, struggle and rejoice with. Yes, life does throw us curve balls, but we catch them together. I could smell the sea, feel the wind and hear the waves: Killybegs is now on my destination wish list!

Publisher's Review 

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

1973. In a close-knit community on Ireland’s west coast, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Named Brendan Bonnar by Ambrose, the fisherman who adopts him, Brendan will become a source of fascination and hope for a town caught in the storm of a rapidly changing world. Ambrose, a man more comfortable at sea than on land, brings Brendan into his home out of love. But it’s a decision that will fracture his family and force him to try to understand himself and those he cares for.

Bookended by the arrival and departure of a single mesmerizing boy, Garrett Carr's The Boy From the Sea is an exploration of the ties that make us and bind us, as a family and community move irresistibly towards the future.