From a Low and Quiet Sea

Just when you think maybe you've read too many things, and that originality is impossible now, except when the author is being ridiculously experimental just for the sake of it, along comes Donal Ryan, and shows you that literary artistry in the cause of a good story isn't finished at all, at all.

[From a Low and Quiet Sea] is a short novel in 4 parts...each of the first three tells the story of a man trying to come to terms with his circumstances or his past, and each would make a worthy novella on its own. A Syrian doctor, desperate to save his family from religious hatred, takes a risk to get them out of their homeland. A fatherless young Irish man whose girl has left him flounders about, uncertain what to do with his life while his show more grandfather hides a deep love for the boy behind bluster and bar stories. A man with no future left looks back on his less-than-admirable life, and seeks absolution. Three fine stories...but wait...the blurbs say "cleverly constructed", the blurbs say "unpredictable", the blurbs suggest there will be a connection among them. Sure, and it's brilliant, that fourth part. I want to read it all over again. Highly recommended. show less

The structure of this one is not the norm. I would barely characterize it as a novel. The first three parts are truly much more like short stories than any other fictional form. The last part brings the first three parts together in an interesting way, but still didn’t leave me feeling like I read a novel. All that being said, I LOVE short stories, and the writing is so well done. Ryan brings these characters to life, and honestly I could have read entire novels about each one. For me, this book is the first one that I feel is worthy of the short list. I felt like I was reading about real people, and as if my friend was telling me about these people over a cup of coffee. The way Ryan wrote about them, I was riveted.

Three stories of three men told separately, later entwined. Farouk is a gentle doctor forced to flee his war-torn Syrian home, who in the process loses his wife and daughter and is utterly bereft. Lampy is a boy in Ireland without direction, with bursts of anger he cannot manage, who is getting by as a mini-bus driver for the local care home. John, also Irish, recounts his sins which are various and extreme and his one shot at love which ended badly, but can he say his act of contrition or not? In the final act, Farouk, Lampy, and John’s lives come together in an unexpected manner, evidence perhaps of near Greek-level tragedy at work.

Donal Ryan’s writing is lyrical and vivid. He paints a soft picture of Farouk, but for Lampy and show more John there is forensic scrutiny. And also a different technique full of conjunctions linking sentence after sentence. Farouk may be an innocent caught up in a world gone mad. But John and Lampy are not so easily absolved. Their fate is as much beyond their reach as Farouk’s. That they should come together at the end is not inevitable. But it may yet reveal evidence of things not seen, of the something that arises out of nothing which troubles each of them separately. A fascinating tale, beautifully told.

Recommended. show less

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018

My respect for Donal Ryan's writing grows with every book I read. This one is a masterly piece of storytelling, a short novel in four parts which appear to have little in common until the final part draws the strings together to deliver a devastating conclusion.

The first part tells of Farouk, a Syrian doctor whose flight from his country with his wife and daughter is related brilliantly and humanely. For me this was everything that the much lauded [b:Exit West|30688435|Exit West|Mohsin Hamid|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477324680s/30688435.jpg|51234185] was missing.

The second part is the story of Lampy, a somewhat marginalised young dreamer who earns his living driving the residents of a show more care home around in a bus, obsessed with a former girlfriend and living with his single mother and grandfather. This section is full of comic detail but ultimately rather sad.

Finally there is John, an old man expounding a grisly confession of a lifetime's misdeeds. This section is told in rather pompous quasi-Biblical language.

The final short section really made the book coalesce in unexpected ways, and I won't spoil it for anyone who has yet to read it.

My only doubt is that this seems a little too short and slight compared with some of the other longlisted books, and that was the only thing that stopped me giving five stars. show less

This novel is composed of three stories, each written in Ryan's characteristically spare and vivid prose. Farouk decides to purchase his family's passage to freedom from war-torn Syria. Lampy tries to get on with his life after his girlfriend Chloe breaks up with him, leaving him to his stagnant life with his mother and grandfather. John sorts through his life of self-serving decisions in a late-stage confessional narrative with a priest. Each of the narratives is compelling but unconnected. Or are they? The end stretches credibility but it's meant to do so. That three such disparate lives could share a fine thread that weaves them together is Donal's point and he makes it well. Our choices along the way result in connections with other show more humans that are unpredictable and sometimes astonishing. And someone may be connected to us in ways we don't even realize. Imbedded in that truth is both beauty and tragedy. show less

This is my first Donal Ryan and a very interesting format is used. It features strong characterisation.
The book comprises three separate stories. Farouk a medical doctor is fleeing wartorn Syria with his wife and young daughter.
Lampy is a young man going nowhere in small town Ireland. His relationship is habit rather than love, the love of his life having moved on.
John is a man close to death seeking redemption for his past wrongs and they are many. He is far from likable.
Their three stories are cleverly brought together in the final section. I will be seeking more of his writing.

I've read Irish author Donal Ryan's first four books and loved them all. As for FROM A LOW AND QUIET SEA (2018), ditto. With its first three sections of fifty pages each, it seems almost like he's given us three very separate, gem-like novellas. The first presents Farouk, a British-educated doctor, who flees with his wife and small daughter from the war in Syria to the West. The second centers on Lampy, a twenty-ish young man, jilted by his lover, who lives with his unmarried mother and grandfather and is stuck in a loveless affair and a dead-end job at a local old folks home. The third concerns John, much older, reflecting back on his unscrupulous ways as a successful "lobbyist" and how he learned early on the advantage of a show more well-placed lie. All three stories are set in and around Limerick (a city Ryan knows well, as he teaches at the University there).

These three seemingly disparate lives all come together in the most moving and unexpected ways in the closing chapters, as Ryan works his usual magic, employing an unerring understanding of human nature. Did I say I loved this book? Well I did, and I do. Donal Ryan is destined to become a national treasure of Ireland. My highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less