Member Review
Review by
Stephen D, Educator
'The Boy from the Sea' is an immersive and moving novel set over two decades in the Donegal fishing town of Killybegs. The novel begins in 1973 when a baby boy is found abandoned on the beach, and fisherman Ambrose Bonnar and his wife Christine decides to take in 'the boy from the sea' and adopt him. We follow the impact of this on the rest of Ambrose and Christine's family - their older son Declan, Christine's unmarried sister Phyllis and her father Eunan - as Brendan grows up.
Much of the novel revolves around this cast of six - there is much love in this family but also we see increasing faultlines emerge: Declan's resentment of his new brother; the demands Eunan places on Phyllis and Phyllis's desire to make Christine share this burden; the tensions in Ambrose and Christine's marriage caused by financial worries. Each of these characters are intimately drawn and we become deeply invested in their lives and relationships.
Something I particularly admired about this novel was its unusual narrative perspective, written in the shared voice of the residents of Killybegs. This first-person plural perspective allows us to build up a picture of this community and the way that rumours and superstitions circulate - though, perhaps in a deliberate effort to destabilise the novel, there are contradictions within this voice as we are also given frequent access to different characters' inner lives.
I also loved the detail with which Garrett Carr writes about the fishing industry - I learnt a huge amount from reading the novel, and many of its most thrilling scenes take place on board Ambrose's boat, the Christine Dawn, while the desire to venture out as far as Rockall is something that haunts both Ambrose and Declan.
This is a powerful debut novel with a great sense of place. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.
Much of the novel revolves around this cast of six - there is much love in this family but also we see increasing faultlines emerge: Declan's resentment of his new brother; the demands Eunan places on Phyllis and Phyllis's desire to make Christine share this burden; the tensions in Ambrose and Christine's marriage caused by financial worries. Each of these characters are intimately drawn and we become deeply invested in their lives and relationships.
Something I particularly admired about this novel was its unusual narrative perspective, written in the shared voice of the residents of Killybegs. This first-person plural perspective allows us to build up a picture of this community and the way that rumours and superstitions circulate - though, perhaps in a deliberate effort to destabilise the novel, there are contradictions within this voice as we are also given frequent access to different characters' inner lives.
I also loved the detail with which Garrett Carr writes about the fishing industry - I learnt a huge amount from reading the novel, and many of its most thrilling scenes take place on board Ambrose's boat, the Christine Dawn, while the desire to venture out as far as Rockall is something that haunts both Ambrose and Declan.
This is a powerful debut novel with a great sense of place. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.
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