Beginner’s pluck: Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing Garrett Carr

'The Boy from the Sea' is a mesmerising, meditative debut; reminiscent of John McGahern and Jon McGregor

Garrett Carr: 'I wanted to write about fishing lives and record a time and a place. Donegal in the 1980s, was a place of extremes, with many people making tons of money.'

The son of a fisherman, Garrett didn’t become a reader until his twenties.

“The only books in our house were the giant dictionary, giant atlas of the world, and an encyclopaedia. I loved drawing and spent time wandering the fields and the bogs.”