From a Low and Quiet Sea

Reviews

A thing of such beauty and compassion, a reminder of what the very finest sentences can do to shatter and then reassemble our hearts Beautiful and affecting I struggle to think of a writer who has been so prolific and consistent in quality as Ryan . . . Brutally honest, moving and often hilarious An engrossing, unpredictable, beautifully crafted novel; Donal Ryan is giving us characters - their angles and their language - that we haven’t seen in Irish literature before. Donal Ryan has not only bounded over a wall into new territory, but built himself a castle there . . . This is a superb novel. From a Low and Quiet Sea is not only very cleverly constructed, but deeply moving too. I loved it. Donal Ryan writes characters so well that as a reader you think ‘I’ve met that man’, or ‘I know that woman.’ But as a writer you simply wonder ‘how does he do it?’ From a Low and Quiet Sea is brutal and beautiful, carefully crafted portraits, deep and real, tied together, fashioned by a true artist. I absolutely loved it. Themes of kindness and humanity are the binding thread…and Ryan writes of them with characteristic warmth and insight. The book has stayed with me It’s a beautiful, luminous kind of piece - full of mystery, compassion, woven with such skill; heartbreaking and restorative. I will carry these splintered men around with me for a long time, along with the women who have loved them. Expand reviews