Garrett Carr’s first venture into adult fiction is a charming tribute to the harbour town that raised him. Set in rural Donegal in the 1970s and 80s, The Boy From The Sea is a quiet meditation on how family, community and industry intertwine around the bountiful but perilous Atlantic. Centred on fisherman Ambrose Bonnar and his wife Christine, the story begins when they rescue a neglected baby (Brendan) on their local beach. As Brendan grows up, so do tensions between him and his brother Declan who is desperate for his father’s validation and sees his adopted sibling as a constant rival. Their estranged relationship acts as the novel’s core conflict, tensions rising and falling as the young brothers find their place in the world. 

Meanwhile, Christine and Ambrose, as well as Christine’s father and sister Phyllis, find fleeting purpose in performing their duties: Ambrose at sea, Christine raising the children, and Phyllis caring for their elderly father. Domestic spaces often play host to the book’s most profound moments, with a beautiful section honing in on Ambrose and Christine exchanging stories about their bodily scars.

But Carr’s biggest strength lies in capturing the fishbowl quality of small-town life. The book’s third-person narrator is a personified collective; the many eyes peeking through neighbours’ curtains or peering over a pint at The Ship Inn. Through this lens, the author observes cutting judgement and soul-saving tenderness shown by tight-knit communities and the speed at which one can turn into the other. 

The Boy From The Sea is out now, published by Picador.