Review by Kevin Brown
The titular boy from the sea in Garrett Carr’s first novel for adults literally arrives from the sea, washing up in half of a blue barrel on the shores of the fishing village of Donegal. The town embraces him, passing him from one family to another for a brief period of time, until Ambrose and Christine take him into their house. Their two-year-old son Declan makes it clear even then that he doesn’t accept Brendan — the name Ambrose and Christine give their new son — as his brother, an assertion he makes for the rest of his childhood.
Donegal becomes a character in and of itself, as Carr uses a first person plural narrator at times to show how the town is changing through Brendan’s life, changes that impact Ambrose and his family. In fact, Carr often uses the phrase “the season turned” before summing up changes in the village to reflect broader shifts outside of Brendan and his family’s life. When Brendan first arrives, Ambrose’s fishing helps them begin to move up economically, but Ambrose falls behind the shift to more industrial fishing, a shift that changes his interactions with his family and friends. Carr sets the novel in the 1970s and 1980s, a time when Ireland’s economy began contracting significantly, leading to many people leaving the country, a theme that comes up throughout the novel.
Both Brendan and Declan struggle to find their place in the village. Brendan has a period of success giving secular blessings to people during the economic downturn, while Declan discovers a talent for and joy in cooking that almost nobody notices or appreciates. Christine drifts away from her father and sister, who live next door, but reconnects with them, at times. Throughout the novel, the characters and town experience tragedies, but still find moments of joy and connection, much as we all do in life.
The Boy From the Sea by Garrett Carr. Alfred A. Knopf, 2025.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels.
