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From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan review – waves of compassion and anger

The lives of a Syrian refugee, a heartbroken carer and a crooked moneyman cross with poignant results

There comes a moment in every novelist’s career where they must decide whether to plough the same furrow that has brought them great success or make their way cautiously into another field, uncertain whether the soil on neighbouring land is as rich. In his fourth novel, Donal Ryan has not only bounded over a wall into new territory, but built himself a castle there.

It’s astonishing to realise that Ryan’s first novel, The Spinning Heart, was published only six years ago. Since then, across three novels and a story collection, he has displayed a sympathy for the voices of the dispossessed that few writers ever develop. His debut was narrated by 21 victims of Ireland’s economic crash; he introduced readers to Johnsey Cunliffe, the isolated and troubled young man at the centre of The Thing About December. Then, along came Melody Shee in All We Shall Know, who found solace with a younger man, Martin Toppy, a Traveller: a character often seen and persecuted in Irish life, but still under-represented in Irish fiction. And so, when the opening section of From a Low and Quiet Sea introduces its first protagonist, and he is not named Seánie, Mick or Peadar, but Farouk, readers will recognise that Ryan has decided to try something a little different.

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