The Boy from the Sea

As read on BBC Radio 4 A Sunday Times Best Book of the Year An Observer Best Debut of the Year The Boy from the Sea is Garrett Carr's brilliantly moving tale of an abandoned baby who rocks a small Irish town, bringing together a community - and igniting lifelong rivalries. '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 In 1973 on the west coast of Ireland, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. Who is he? Where is he from? What changes will he bring? Ambrose, a local fisherman, is far more interested in who he will become and - with a curious community looking on - takes the baby home and adopts him. But for Declan, the baby's new brother, this arrival is surely bad news. Rivalries can be decades in the making . . . Set over twenty years, Garrett Carr's The Boy from the Sea is about a restless boy trying to find his place, in a town caught in the storm of a rapidly changing world. Readers love The Boy from the Sea: 'Left me feeling warm and satisfied when I finished it and I've thought about it daily since then' * 'Books are meant to change you, to shape you, and to heal you, and The Boy from the Sea does all those things' * 'You feel like you're right there in the village' * 'Stunning. I found myself waking up at 5am because I was desperate to read more' * 'Felt like I was stepping off life's treadmill and immersing myself in another world' *

Garrett Carr teaches Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen's University Belfast, and has published three YA novels. His non-fiction title, The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Garrett is a frequent contributor to The Guardian and The Irish Times. The Boy from the Sea is his debut novel.