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How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney
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How to Build a Boat

AS SEEN ON BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS
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Narrator Ciaran O'Brien

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Length 8 hours 10 minutes
Language English
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Brought to you by Penguin.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023.


A deeply moving novel about a boy and his dream, from the prize-winning author of As You Were

Jamie O'Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. At age 13 there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind these things are intimately linked. And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.

How to Build a Boat is the story of how one boy and his mission transforms the lives of his teachers, Tess and Tadhg, and brings together a community. Written with tenderness and verve, it's about love, family and connection, the power of imagination, and how our greatest adventures never happen alone.

ยฉ2023 Elaine Feeney (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Elaine Feeney is an acclaimed novelist and poet from the west of Ireland. Her debut novel, As You Were, was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Irish Novel of the Year Award, and won the Kate Oโ€™Brien Award, the McKitterick Prize and the Dalkey Festival Emerging Writer Award. How to Build a Boat was also shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year, longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a New Yorker Best Book of the Year. Feeney has published the poetry collections Whereโ€™s Katie?, The Radio Was Gospel, Rise and All the Good Things You Deserve, and lectures at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

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Reviews

How to Build a Boat is a gentle tsunami of a novel, so beautifully and tenderly crafted you don't even notice you're being swept along. It gets right to the heart of what it means to be broken and searching for community. I can't wait for readers to fall in love with Jamie's refreshingly sideways take on life. A story of absence, love, loss, courage and resilience lit up from within, Elaine Feeney's How To Build A Boat is an emotionally resonant tour-de-force very much in keeping with the unforgettable spirit of her debut As You Were. A heart-stopping read and a stunning, resonant exploration of a community, a motherless boy and living an authentic life. What a gorgeous book. Unsentimental but generous, sharp as a teacher's side-eye and bursting with soul. One of those rare books that leaves you feeling less lonely. An uplifting tale of community, healing and the small connections that can change a life. A gorgeous gift of a novel, hopeful and full of humanity. Expand reviews
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