Set on Ireland's west coast in the 1970s and 80s, a captivating debut novel about a baby boy who is discovered on the beach beside a small fishing town, as told by the locals who fall under the boy's transfixing spell. 'Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment.'--Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses Ireland 1973, a baby boy is found on the beach of a close-knit fishing village. Fisherman Ambrose Bonnar offers to bring the child into his own family: his son, Declan, wife, Christine, and up the lane, Christine's sister and aging father. The townspeople remain fascinated by the baby, now named Brendan, as he grows into a strange yet charismatic young man. The Boy from the Sea tells the story of a family and community, all thrown into turmoil by Brendan's arrival. The family's fortunes rise and fall over the years--as do the town's, because nothing happens to one family here that doesn't happen to them all--as the forces of a voracious global economy and modernized commercial fishing