The Boy From The Sea by Garrett Carr

The Boy From The Sea has the honour of being the very first book chosen for the Teasel & Skylark Book Club — and what a wonderful place to begin. Set in a close-knit Irish coastal community, the novel follows the arrival of a mysterious baby boy from the sea and the ripples his life sends through the town for decades afterwards.

What I loved most was the voice of the community itself — the story is narrated collectively through “we” and “us”, which gives the whole novel this rich, intimate feeling of shared memory and village folklore. In terms of plot, I was probably expecting something more mythical or magical realist, but actually I loved that Carr keeps the story grounded and deeply human. The emotional pull comes not from fantasy, but from family, gossip, longing, resilience and the complicated bonds within a small fishing community facing societal change.

Warm, funny, moving and beautifully atmospheric, this is the kind of novel you want to savour and focus upon. As a side note, I spent several days afterwards thinking in an Irish accent, which surely says everything you need to know about how immersive the novel is.

Richard