Publishers Weekly
03/24/2025
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. Agent: Irene Baldoni, Georgina Capel Assoc. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"Carr’s novel accesses deep strands of truth by embedding magic in the real… In the difficulty of these characters’ lives is a sense of real connection that gives the book a kind of lightness, of what might be possible in a real community: lasting ties, genuine reciprocity. This is not false hope; it’s just hope… This is a surprising, tender and warm-hearted novel about a real place and real people.”—The Guardian
"A joy . . . vivid, loving and genuinely funny."—The Sunday Times
"The novel does something only art can, which is to show how more than one truth might be held in mind at once, even if together they conflict... Wry, observant, various and thoughtful, a book that gathers momentum like a westerly, the crash of consequences giving way to a late calm, the reader left with a stunned impression of the storm that just blew over."—The Irish Times
"Expansive and intimate, funny and warm, while also psychologically astute... The result is immersive in the best way."―The Herald
"A beautifully written, tragi-comic triumph."―Sunday Independent
"A lyrical, beautifully written portrait of a place and its people."―Mail on Sunday
"Stunning."―Good Housekeeping
"Outstanding . . . one of those beautiful books that soothe the soul."―Prima Magazine
"Carr’s chorus is a charming and sometimes humorous voice... which poignantly paints the struggles of marriage, caregiving, grief and financial worry."―Financial Times
"Beautiful, funny, utterly glorious."―Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina
"Beautifully observed, and funny, and poignant, I don’t want it to ever end." ―Jennie Godfrey, bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things
"Beautifully written – a gorgeous modern fairy tale." —Sarah Moss, author of The Fell
"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, author of The Wonder
“Compulsive reading . . . Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment.” —Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses
"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. This book is fully alive, and enlivens the reader with it." —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, and a wryly penetrating meditation on what makes the Irish the Irish. This is as impressively wise and idiosyncratic a novel as I’ve read in years.” —Jim Shepard, author of The Book of Aron
"The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr captures the changing feeling of the latter decades of the twentieth century in Ireland better 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 the 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, A Boy From the Sea excels in its clarity and particularity of voice.” —Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Wild Laughter and The Alternatives
"A novel of heart-bumping power and sparkling vividness, this book evokes the seethe and surge of an island nation's sea fables while being suspicious of sentiment, often wittily so. Its depiction of a stranger's arrival recalls great rural storytelling, from Jean de Florette to Synge's mouthy playboy and the country music mystery tales in which a newcomer rides into town. 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
“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
Kirkus Reviews
2025-02-15
A surprise arrival at an Irish fishing town upends a family and community.
The debut adult novel by Carr opens in 1973, as a barrel carrying a newborn baby appears on the shore of Killybegs. The arrival of a Moseslike prophet? An infant abandoned by a desperate young mother? The novel’s collective narrator notes that the townspeople are open to various interpretations. After being passed from home to home, he’s adopted by a fisherman, Ambrose, and his wife, Christine, who name him Brendan. The boy’s arrival stokes resentment in his new older brother, Declan, and it intensifies the sibling rivalry between Christine and her sister, Phyllis, who’s taking care of their widower father down the lane. Neither’s sour mood will appreciably dissipate in the decades that follow. Carr’s depiction of this milieu is expert on two fronts. First, he’s gifted at capturing the excitement and tension of seafaring life, as Ambrose struggles to keep his beloved ship functioning and profitable amid high seas and an increasingly corporatized industry. Second and more important, Carr thoughtfully explores the ways Brendan’s peculiar origin story complicates a variety of family relationships, as well as Brendan’s own self-image—for a time in his teens, he and the community take the prophet interpretation seriously, and he delivers “blessings” around town. Declan’s decisions, as well as the sisters’, often hinge on their subconscious feelings about Brendan and need for Ambrose’s esteem, which Carr grasps as both liberating and constricting. Later chapters explore Brendan’s true provenance, but even without that information it would still be a sharp, well-made work about the complications of everyday parenthood and siblinghood.
An intimate and psychologically savvy domestic drama.
