The Boy From The Sea by Garett Carr
Included in the FT’s best books of the week is Garrett Carr’s latest publication, ‘The Boy From The Sea‘.
Mia Levitin, February 5th 2025, The Financial Times
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An ordinary town. An extraordinary boy.
The heart-warming, life-affirming debut story of a baby found on a beach and the fisherman who adopts him.
‘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
1973. In a close-knit community on Ireland’s west coast, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Named Brendan by Ambrose Bonnar, the fisherman who adopts him, the boy 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 is a decision that will fracture his family and force this man – more comfortable at sea than on land – to try to understand himself and those he cares for.
Set over twenty years, Garrett Carr’s The Boy From the Sea is a novel about a restless boy trying to find his place in the world. It is an exploration of the ties that make us and bind us, as a family and community move irresistibly into the future.
“So many worlds, so much to do, so little done, such things to be”
Alfred lord tennyson