Garrett Carr

THE BOY FROM THE SEA

An Observer Best Debut of 2025.

“In the difficulty of these characters’ lives is a sense of real connection that gives the book a kind of lightness … This is a surprising, tender and warm-hearted novel about a real place and real people” – The Guardian

"Beautifully observed, funny and poignant. I didn't want it to ever end" – Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

“Wry, observant, various and thoughtful, a book that gathers momentum like a westerly, the crash of consequences giving way to a late calm, the reader left with a stunned impression of the storm that just blew over” – The Irish Times

"Carr’s story is both expansive and intimate, funny and warm, while also psychologically acute. And it carries a cargo hold full of feeling beneath the decks. The result is immersive in the best way" – The Herald

"The Boy from the Sea has that rare quality I often find myself searching for in a novel – narrative intimacy among the vastness of life. Garrett Carr is meticulous and precise in his writing – the skilled invisibility of a true craftsman. This book is fully alive, and enlivens the reader" – Rónán Hession, author of Ghost Mountain

“Carr’s chorus is a charming and sometimes humorous voice … which poignantly paints the struggles of marriage, caregiving, grief and financial worry” – Financial Times

“A novel that is warm, full of lightly worn wisdom and wit. It is a joy" – Sunday Times

I introduce the novel here on YouTube.
The novel will be published in the USA in May, you can preorder here.

2025 EVENTS for THE BOY FROM THE SEA:

NEXT UP: USA, BOSTON: Belmont Books, 13th May, 7PM. Interviewed by Jim Shepard.

https://belmontbooks.com/event/2025-05-13/garrett-carr-and-jim-shepard-discuss-boy-sea

USA, NEW YORK CITY: Irish Arts Centre, 15th May, 7PM. Interviewed by Yvonne Cassidy.

https://irishartscenter.org/event/debut-voices-garrett-carr

USA, WASHINGTON DC: Madhatter, with Solas Nua, 16th May 7PM. Interviewed by Andrew Dolan.

https://www.solasnua.org/events/reading-conversation-garrett-carr

IRELAND, DUBLIN: International Literature Festival, 21st May 6PM. With Gerbrand Bakker and interviewed by Neil Hegarty.

https://ilfdublin.com/whats-on/the-view-over-the-horizon-gerbrand-bakker-garrett-carr/

NORTHERN IRELAND, BELFAST: Belfast Book Festival: 7th June, 2:30PM. With Michael Pedersen.

https://belfastbookfestival.com/whats-on/hidden-depths-writing-male-characters-garrett-carr-michael-pedersen

CANADA, TORONTO: 'Mapping Ireland's Border'. Keynote for the Canadian Association for Irish Studies conference in York University, 11th June 5:30PM. Plus the Candian launch of The Boy from the Sea, 12th June 5PM, Fr Madden Hall at St Michael's College in the University of Toronto.

IRELAND, DONEGAL: Earagail Arts Festival 2025, Rathmullan House, 19th July, 3:30PM. I'll be intervewing Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses.

https://eaf.ie/events/the-journals-fleadh-louise-kennedy-in-conversation/

NORTHERN IRELAND, ARMAGH: John Hewitt International Summer School, 1st August, 2:45PM. With Roisín O'Donnell and interviewed by Jan Carson.

IRELAND, WEXFORD: Kilmore Quay, Write by the Sea Festival, late September.

IRELAND, LETRIM: Iron Mountain Festival, early October.

ENGLAND: Cheltenham Literature Festival 2025. 16th October, afternoon. With Niall Williams.

ENGLAND: Wimbledon Book Festival. 17th October. With Reeta Chakrabarti.

IRELAND, KERRY: Dingle Festival, the weekend beginning 21st November.


BOOK: THE RULE OF THE LAND: WALKING IRELAND'S BORDER




Writing in the Guardian, Fintan O’Toole selected The Rule of the Land as one of five books to understand Ireland's border. Shortly after publication I was selected for a British Council/Arts Council showcase of UK writers "asking the questions that will shape our future."

“Great writing about landscape and history” Colm Tóibín
"Packed with interest – varied and fun to read" TLS
"It is Carr's contention that Ireland is more divided than any of us suspected — not in two but in three: north, south and borderland. The third state is opened up in this marvellous book" The Daily Telegraph
“Carr has the eye of a scientist, and a poet’s facility with words” Irish Independent
"Reminiscent of Tim Robinson's response to landscape and what dwells within" Sunday Times
"A sensitive portrait of the people of these borderlands, and his maps of the route are full of unexpected, lively detail" Radio Times

Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

*

A true account of a border and its people

The Yellow Manifesto

Hundreds of statements about life on Ireland's border were written during the Border People's Parliament when 150 border people met at Northern Ireland's Parliament Buildings. The event was commissioned by 14-18 NOW and the Belfast International Arts Festival.

The Border People's Parliament

One of my roles was to draft the Yellow Manifesto from the written statements. The result, according to one commentator, is a “poetry of reasonable voices”. So far, the manifesto has been exhibited in Manchester's Whitworth Gallery and in Düsseldorf's Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.

See the manifesto more closely here. I wrote about the creation of the manifesto for The Conversation.

MEDIA

I am a frequent contributor to TV programmes and the press internationally, for example the Guardian, the New York Times, the Economist 1843 and the TLS.



The half-hour documentary CHARTING THE BORDER was based on my border surveys and the creation of THE MAP OF CONNECTIONS. Click here to hear CHARTING THE BORDER on BBC Radio 4.

For THE SILENCE AND THE SCREAM I went in search of a radical free-thinking commune which broke the silence of a rural Donegal community in the 1970s.

Short stories written for broadcast include THE ORACLE AT GLENCOLUMBKILLE and HARD STATION. I have also presented a epsiode of The Book Show for RTE.

KID'S BOOKS


THE BADNESS OF BALLYDOG is an adventure story for young people from nine years and up. Along with my second novel LOST DOGS it was included in reads of the year lists in both The Times and The Irish Independent. DEEP DEEP DOWN completed the trilogy. The books are published by Simon & Schuster. See my page on Amazon or Goodreads.

"A born storyteller"
The Times
"Carr's writing is a joy – confident, muscular and fearless"
The Irish Independent
"Cracking story"
The Irish Times
MAPS



Prints of these maps can be purchased on the map page.

THE MAP OF CONNECTIONS 3.1 charts unofficial border crossings: the stepping stones, footbridges and muddy lanes I found when walking the border. More on the map page.


FICTIONAL ULSTER locates Ulster’s fictional places – villages, townlands, mountains and other places invented by writers down through the years. More here.


A VIEW OF THE BORDER is the map illustrating The Rule of the Land: Walking Ireland's Border. I have reorganised the elements and the text, creating a new version suitable for display as a single print measuring 70 by 78 centimetres. It can be purchased on the map page.

CURATOR: MAPPING ALTERNATIVE ULSTER




Maps of Northern Ireland are often used to illustrate traditional political divisions, but they conceal a much more nuanced place. This landscape, rural and urban, is much more than a site of conflict. I brought together diverse mapmakers: local historians, activists, artists, geographers and urban planners for a show of maps called MAPPING ALTERNATIVE ULSTER. It has so far run in four different gallery spaces around Ireland. The exhibition re-thinks our representation on maps.

From the comments book:
Both fascinating and inspiring ... very impressive, pluralist approach ... It seems the people of Northern Ireland have a special kind of love for their land, and desire to map it ... A wonderful and imaginative exhibiton ...

Exhibition website.


CURATOR: FRONTIER WORK

A section of Frontier Work in the RCC

For Donegal's Regional Cultural Centre I recently worked with four visual artists to create the group show Frontier Work, marking 100 years of Ireland's border. Poet and artist Noel Connor produced an 8 minute film called 'Lost Lines' for the exhibition, which can also be viewed on the RCC's Youtube channel. Sue Morris contributed 'Bingo Borderland', Janet Hoy created 'Turf Wall' and Anna Marie Savage's work was called 'Semtex and Powdered Milk.'

CONTACT ME

Email:
garrettcarr [at] gmail [dot] com

Postal address:
Garrett Carr
The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's
Queen's University Belfast
Northern Ireland
BT7 1NN

Instagram. Bluesky.

Agent: Georgina Capel Associates.

 

 

Thank you for visiting.