Siblings, right? In some families, they're a pain, an ache that probably would be even more acute if they had arrived not through traditional planning but by drifting into town in a foil-lined barrel. That's the setup of The Boy from the Sea, the first novel by Irish author Garrett Carr. Starting in 1973 and spanning two decades, the story takes place in Donegal Bay, the inlet in northwest Ireland where residents "fish or work in the processing plants or drive the lorries taking our catches across the country and beyond." One day, a man walking along the shore path discovers a baby boy in a barrel the tide brought in. A fisherman named Ambrose, married with a two-year-old son named Declan, offers to take the baby in and persuades his family to adopt the boy. They call him Brendan.
Well, he persuades his wife, anyway. Declan hates having a brother, and that's just one of the conflicts animating this sweet-natured work. As time passes, Declan's resentment grows. Brendan, meanwhile, convinces townspeople that he's imbued with the ability to bestow "blessings," which he transmits by putting a hand on a recipient's shoulder. Then there's tension between Ambrose's wife, Christine, and Christine's older sister, Phyllis, who has a grudge regarding her younger sibling's apparent unwillingness to help care for Eunan, their widowed lobsterman father. Town gossip and other, more consequential tragedies fill out the novel. Carr tells his tale with gentle grace and an in-his-bones feel for coastal, windswept Ireland. It's a treat. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer