Boy from the Sea

Regular price €21.99
1970s
A01=Garrett Carr
adoption
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Garrett Carr
automatic-update
Category1=Fiction
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=FA
Category=FBA
Category=FS
Category=FT
Category=FV
Category=FXB
Category=FXD
Category=FXE
Category=FXN
Category=FXP
Category=FXQ
Category=FXR
Category=FY
Category=JKSF
coast
community
COP=United Kingdom
cultural change
Delivery_Pre-order
drama
emotional
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_new_release
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
family
fishing
foundling
humor
Ireland
Language_English
mystery
PA=Not yet available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Forthcoming
sea
small-town
softlaunch

Product details

  • ISBN 9781035044535
  • Weight: 442g
  • Dimensions: 145 x 225mm
  • Publication Date: 06 Feb 2025
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
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THE IRISH TIMES NO. 4 BESTSELLER
A Sunday Times Best Book of 2025
An Observer Best Debut of 2025


An ordinary town. An extraordinary boy.
The life-affirming 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.

Readers love this gorgeous debut:

'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' *****
'Left me feeling warm and satisfied when I finished it and I’ve thought about it daily since then' *****

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