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The Boy from the Sea

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The Boy from the Sea

Written by: Garrett Carr
Narrated by: Stanley Townsend
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About this listen

An Observer Best Debut of 2025

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.

©2025 Garrett Carr (P)2025 Macmillan Publishers International Limited Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

What the critics say

A novel of heart-bumping power and sparkling vividness. 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 and My Father's House)
A tremendous story about a family changed by the arrival of a strange boy, which feels like an instant classic . . . huge hearted, masterful . . . Told in a captivating communal voice like nothing I've ever read before . . . The Boy from the Sea is a dazzling exploration of the ties that make and bind us (Lauren Brown, The Bookseller, Book of the Month)
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, bestselling author of Room)
Beautifully written - gorgeous modern folklore (Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater)
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)
The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr captures the changing feelings and textures of the latter decades of the twentieth century in Ireland more precisely 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 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, The Boy From the Sea excels in its clarity and particularity of voice (Caoilinn Hughes, author of The Alternatives)
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 (Rónán Hession, author of Ghost Mountain)

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