Review: From a Low and Quiet Sea

From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really loved a previous book by Donal Ryan, The Spinning Heart, which I also read because it was on the Man Booker longlist, back in 2013. What I loved in that book, Ryan's ability to portray the inner lives of his characters, is present in this book as well, but where that novel felt like a cohesive story this never really came together for me. I struggled to understand what the author was trying to do. Why these characters? Why these stories?

In the Man Booker Prize universe, though, the first page of this book was astounding in the way it harkened almost directly to The Overstory by Richard Powers, about how trees communicate, etc. What a coincidence! And I think the author intended for it to lay the groundwork for the novel, something I was waiting for and didn't find.

I will still try another novel by this author. I do think he is trying to write Ireland in a different way, but I think he needed more space to accomplish it with these characters in this case.

Thanks to the publisher for giving me access to this title through NetGalley. It came out July 17, 2018, but I misread the info and thought it came out today!

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