The Boy from the Sea: the heart-wrenching story of a family you won't want to leave behind

As read on BBC Radio 4 A Sunday Times Best Book of 2025 An Observer Best Debut of 2025

'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 the world, and a town caught in the storm of a rapidly approaching future.

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' *****

© 2025 Picador (Audiobook): 9781035044566

Release date

Audiobook: 6 February 2025