From a low and Quiet Sea tells us the stories of three men. Farouk is an immigrant who has risked everything and suffered a lot to escape from Syria and make a life for himself in Ireland. Lampy is a heartbroken young man still living at home with his mother and grandfather and finally we meet John. He was greatly affected by the death of his brother when he was still a child but has gone on the be very successful, we are also told about an affair he had. They are given a section of the novel each rather than their stories being interwoven throughout. However in the fourth and final part of the novel we learn what links them together.
What I love about Donal Ryan's work is his ability to tell us so much about his characters in very few pages, they are well developed and convincingly brought to life, not a word is wasted. Having said this I did struggle to connect with John a lot more than the others although this may well be down to me as I've been in a reading lull of late.
From a Low and Quiet Sea is definitely worth a read if you enjoy well written, intelligent fiction. If you haven't tried any of the authors previous work then perhaps read one of his first two novels before giving this a go, links to my reviews of those are below:
Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld for a review copy.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
