Overview

A powerful, devastating, and redemptive novel by the award-winning author of GRACE. BEYOND THE SEA tells the tale of two South American fishermen, Bolivar and Hector, who go to sea before a sudden storm. Cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean, the two men must come to terms with their environment, and each other, if they are to survive. BEYOND THE SEA begins as a gripping survival story and ends as a fearless existential parable, a meditation on what it means to be a man, a friend, a sinner, a human, in our fallen world. As deep and timeless as the sea, this novel sits squarely in the tradition of Camus, Borges, Joyce, Beckett, and McCarthy.

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9781786076489

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Reviews

`[Lynch's] novels are artistic creations...this absorbing book is an evocative one...His fourth novel has echoes of Melville, Dostoyevsky and William Golding...But the literary work it most invokes is Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' * <i>Sunday Times</i> * `[A] sensuous ocean-survival fable...Beyond the Sea deserves a special place in Lynch's increasingly fascinating and diverse catalogue.' * <i>Irish Independent</i> * `Fantastically written, a truly magnificent portrayal of the gritty battle between despair and hope.' * <i>RTE</i> * `Lyrical, fantastical and almost hallucinatory...Lynch paints a wonderful picture of both the vastness of the ocean and the claustrophobia of the two men on the tiny boat...Like the protagonists, the reader too experiences a sense of dissociation from reality while traversing this haunting, dreamlike novel.' * <i>The Sunday Business Post</i> * `Richly imagined...[has] the timeless aura and allegorical undertones of an ancient Greek myth...This is a book that will leave you feeling thoroughly wrung out by the final page, but also happy to be alive.' * <i>Scotland Magazine</i> * `Combining the sensibilities of a Joseph Conrad or a Cormac McCarthy with the poetic intensity of an Emily Dickinson, this rich, raw, and powerful seascape by Paul Lynch throws the sea's storms and the sea's light into the darkest corners of human consciousness. An astonishing achievement.' * Jane Urquhart, author of <i>The Night Stages</i> * `A powerful, heart-breaking story of friendship forged in the most extreme conditions. With its echoes of Greek myth, it yields up those small moments of grace that are deeply transformative.' * Mary Costello, author of <i>Academy Street</i> * `A novelist with the eye and the ear and the heart of an absolute master. Paul Lynch is peerless.' * Donal Ryan, author of <i>From a Low and Quiet Sea</i> * `Lynch makes the page sing like the old masters.' * Philipp Meyer, author of <i>The Son</i> * `One of his generation's very finest writers.' * Ron Rash, author of <i>Serena</i> * `An unflinching look at the physical, mental and emotional mechanisms which humans use for surviving the most extreme conditions, the novella glistens with potent dialogue and lyrical descriptions... It's also a heart-rending story about relationships and redemption... Paul Lynch is rightly considered one of Ireland's rising literary stars.' * <i>Hotpress</i> *

`[Lynch's] novels are artistic creations...this absorbing book is an evocative one...His fourth novel has echoes of Melville, Dostoyevsky and William Golding...But the literary work it most invokes is Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' * <i>Sunday Times</i> * `[A] sensuous ocean-survival fable...Beyond the Sea deserves a special place in Lynch's increasingly fascinating and diverse catalogue.' * <i>Irish Independent</i> * `Fantastically written, a truly magnificent portrayal of the gritty battle between despair and hope.' * <i>RTE</i> * `A lucid, lyrical tale of two lost men... The language attains a poetic intensity that is unusual and well earned.' * <i>Irish Times</i> * `Lyrical, fantastical and almost hallucinatory...Lynch paints a wonderful picture of both the vastness of the ocean and the claustrophobia of the two men on the tiny boat...Like the protagonists, the reader too experiences a sense of dissociation from reality while traversing this haunting, dreamlike novel.' * <i>The Sunday Business Post</i> * `Richly imagined...[has] the timeless aura and allegorical undertones of an ancient Greek myth...This is a book that will leave you feeling thoroughly wrung out by the final page, but also happy to be alive.' * <i>Scotland Magazine</i> * `Combining the sensibilities of a Joseph Conrad or a Cormac McCarthy with the poetic intensity of an Emily Dickinson, this rich, raw, and powerful seascape by Paul Lynch throws the sea's storms and the sea's light into the darkest corners of human consciousness. An astonishing achievement.' * Jane Urquhart, author of <i>The Night Stages</i> * `A powerful, heart-breaking story of friendship forged in the most extreme conditions. With its echoes of Greek myth, it yields up those small moments of grace that are deeply transformative.' * Mary Costello, author of <i>Academy Street</i> * `A novelist with the eye and the ear and the heart of an absolute master. Paul Lynch is peerless.' * Donal Ryan, author of <i>From a Low and Quiet Sea</i> * `Lynch makes the page sing like the old masters.' * Philipp Meyer, author of <i>The Son</i> * `One of his generation's very finest writers.' * Ron Rash, author of <i>Serena</i> * `An unflinching look at the physical, mental and emotional mechanisms which humans use for surviving the most extreme conditions, the novella glistens with potent dialogue and lyrical descriptions... It's also a heart-rending story about relationships and redemption... Paul Lynch is rightly considered one of Ireland's rising literary stars.' * <i>Hotpress</i> *

`Combining the sensibilities of a Joseph Conrad or a Cormac McCarthy with the poetic intensity of an Emily Dickinson, this rich, raw, and powerful seascape by Paul Lynch throws the sea's storms and the sea's light into the darkest corners of human consciousness. An astonishing achievement.' * Jane Urquhart, author of <i>The Night Stages</i> * Praise for Grace: `A profound and unusual coming-of-age story.' Sunday Times `A shudderingly well written, dead-real, hallucinatory trip across Famine Ireland.' Emma Donoghue, author of Room 'Lynch's book is a celebration of the human spirit in even the most trying of circumstances and the steps we take to ensure our survival.' Irish Independent

'Lynch demonstrates a control over his ideas that comes from a pure lyrical telling, a speech act that, if you let it, will take you anywhere. Beyond the Sea is frightening but beautiful.' * Guardian * 'Masterly.' * Sebastian Barry, author of Days Without End * 'Brutal and poetic... Alive with elegance and insight.' * TLS * '[Lynch's] novels are artistic creations...this absorbing book is an evocative one...His fourth novel has echoes of Melville, Dostoyevsky and William Golding...But the literary work it most invokes is Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' * Sunday Times * 'Such an aching sense of spaciousness feels in the spirit of its exotic setting, of Latin American sensualists such as Paulo Coelho or Pablo Neruda, or the deep eastern wisdoms of Hermann Hesse... Beyond the Sea deserves a special place in Lynch's increasingly fascinating and diverse catalogue.' * Irish Independent * 'Lynch has mastered the art of capturing his characters' anguish, and there is an enigmatic lyricism to his storytelling... The story is fantastically written, a truly magnificent portrayal of the gritty battle between despair and hope.' * RTE * 'A lucid, lyrical tale of two lost men... The language attains a poetic intensity that is unusual and well earned.' * Irish Times * 'Paul Lynch won the Irish Novel of the Year 2018 for Grace, a lushly lyrical adventure story set in Famine-era Ireland. His follow-up...[is] a short but absorbing tale of the lengths to which people go to avoid admitting who they really are.' * Metro * 'Lyrical, fantastical and almost hallucinatory... Lynch paints a wonderful picture of both the vastness of the ocean and the claustrophobia of the two men on the tiny boat... Like the protagonists, the reader too experiences a sense of dissociation from reality while traversing this haunting, dreamlike novel.' * The Sunday Business Post * 'Richly imagined...[has] the timeless aura and allegorical undertones of an ancient Greek myth...This is a book that will leave you feeling thoroughly wrung out by the final page, but also happy to be alive.' * The Scotsman * 'Combining the sensibilities of a Joseph Conrad or a Cormac McCarthy with the poetic intensity of an Emily Dickinson, this rich, raw, and powerful seascape by Paul Lynch throws the sea's storms and the sea's light into the darkest corners of human consciousness. An astonishing achievement.' * Jane Urquhart, author of The Night Stages * 'An epic with, as epics should have, more than a touch of poetry about it, and possibly the grimmest, but also most beautifully written, novel set at sea that I have read since William Golding's Pincher Martin.' * New Criterion * 'Beyond the Sea is a masterpiece.' * Mia Gallagher, author of Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland * 'A powerful, heart-breaking story of friendship forged in the most extreme conditions. With its echoes of Greek myth, it yields up those small moments of grace that are deeply transformative.' * Mary Costello, author of Academy Street * 'A novelist with the eye and the ear and the heart of an absolute master. Paul Lynch is peerless.' * Donal Ryan, author of From a Low and Quiet Sea * 'Thrillingly stripped-back prose composed of simple, declarative sentences...viscerally captures Bolivar's physical and spiritual transformation.' * The Australian * 'Lynch makes the page sing like the old masters.' * Philipp Meyer, author of The Son * 'This poetic, ambitious tale by award-winning writer Paul Lynch is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and even Ernest Hemingway, though in its Irish fluency and lyricism it is stylistically far away from Hemingway.' * Spectrum * 'Paul Lynch is one of our greatest writers, and Beyond the Sea is his best work yet. A sublime, elemental, fever dream of a novel that constantly tests us, tempts us, and guides us. This is a work of art that relentlessly and slyly captures not only the trials of the human spirit, but what we are doing to our environment, our world, and to each other - a profound, unforgettable journey, one I urge you to experience.' * Paul Yoon, author of The Mountain * 'The light and dark of their lives play out in a story that is dazzling, unsettling and deeply revealing of the human condition.' * Brisbane News Magazine * 'With echoes of Camus, McCarthy, Hemingway, and Coleridge, Lynch illustrates the reciprocally indifferent relationship between humanity and its environment, while subtly highlighting the same indifference between humans. The author of Grace (my favourite novel of 2017) presents a harrowing, yet redemptive tale of spiritual purgation delivered with poetic and deeply evocative prose.' * Readings (Australia) * 'With lyrical skill, Lynch reveals each man's regrets and hopes and fears, leading to a life-changing end for them, and possibly for you, too.' * Weekend Sport * 'One of his generation's very finest writers.' * Ron Rash, author of Serena * 'An unflinching look at the physical, mental and emotional mechanisms which humans use for surviving the most extreme conditions, the novella glistens with potent dialogue and lyrical descriptions... It's also a heart-rending story about relationships and redemption... Paul Lynch is rightly considered one of Ireland's rising literary stars.' * Hotpress * 'Readers who know Lynch's previous book, Grace, set in Ireland during the Great Famine, will know what poetry he brings to the plight of people forced to the very brink of existence.' * The Advertiser (Australia) * 'Shadows of Hemingway, even Graham Greene?... [There are] more than enough questions, prompted by Lynch's narrative, to keep people thinking and reading.' * Otago Daily Times * 'A celebration of the way that humans are able to face the most horrendous circumstances and manage to continue fighting for survival.' * Tintean *

`Lynch demonstrates a control over his ideas that comes from a pure lyrical telling, a speech act that, if you let it, will take you anywhere. Beyond the Sea is frightening but beautiful.' * <i>Guardian</i> * `[Lynch's] novels are artistic creations...this absorbing book is an evocative one...His fourth novel has echoes of Melville, Dostoyevsky and William Golding...But the literary work it most invokes is Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' * <i>Sunday Times</i> * `Such an aching sense of spaciousness feels in the spirit of its exotic setting, of Latin American sensualists such as Paolo Coelho or Pablo Neruda, or the deep eastern wisdoms of Hermann Hesse... Beyond the Sea deserves a special place in Lynch's increasingly fascinating and diverse catalogue.' * <i>Irish Independent</i> * `Fantastically written, a truly magnificent portrayal of the gritty battle between despair and hope.' * <i>RTE</i> * `A lucid, lyrical tale of two lost men... The language attains a poetic intensity that is unusual and well earned.' * <i>Irish Times</i> * `Lyrical, fantastical and almost hallucinatory...Lynch paints a wonderful picture of both the vastness of the ocean and the claustrophobia of the two men on the tiny boat...Like the protagonists, the reader too experiences a sense of dissociation from reality while traversing this haunting, dreamlike novel.' * <i>The Sunday Business Post</i> * `Richly imagined...[has] the timeless aura and allegorical undertones of an ancient Greek myth...This is a book that will leave you feeling thoroughly wrung out by the final page, but also happy to be alive.' * <i>Scotland Magazine</i> * `Combining the sensibilities of a Joseph Conrad or a Cormac McCarthy with the poetic intensity of an Emily Dickinson, this rich, raw, and powerful seascape by Paul Lynch throws the sea's storms and the sea's light into the darkest corners of human consciousness. An astonishing achievement.' * Jane Urquhart, author of <i>The Night Stages</i> * `A powerful, heart-breaking story of friendship forged in the most extreme conditions. With its echoes of Greek myth, it yields up those small moments of grace that are deeply transformative.' * Mary Costello, author of <i>Academy Street</i> * `A novelist with the eye and the ear and the heart of an absolute master. Paul Lynch is peerless.' * Donal Ryan, author of <i>From a Low and Quiet Sea</i> * `Lynch makes the page sing like the old masters.' * Philipp Meyer, author of <i>The Son</i> * `One of his generation's very finest writers.' * Ron Rash, author of <i>Serena</i> * `An unflinching look at the physical, mental and emotional mechanisms which humans use for surviving the most extreme conditions, the novella glistens with potent dialogue and lyrical descriptions... It's also a heart-rending story about relationships and redemption... Paul Lynch is rightly considered one of Ireland's rising literary stars.' * <i>Hotpress</i> *

Praise for Grace: `A profound and unusual coming-of-age story.' Sunday Times `A shudderingly well written, dead-real, hallucinatory trip across Famine Ireland.' Emma Donoghue, author of Room 'Lynch's book is a celebration of the human spirit in even the most trying of circumstances and the steps we take to ensure our survival.' Irish Independent

`A powerful, heart-breaking story of friendship forged in the most extreme conditions. With its echoes of Greek myth, it yields up those small moments of grace that are deeply transformative.' * Mary Costello, author of <i>Academy Street</i> * `Combining the sensibilities of a Joseph Conrad or a Cormac McCarthy with the poetic intensity of an Emily Dickinson, this rich, raw, and powerful seascape by Paul Lynch throws the sea's storms and the sea's light into the darkest corners of human consciousness. An astonishing achievement.' * Jane Urquhart, author of <i>The Night Stages</i> * Praise for Grace: `A profound and unusual coming-of-age story.' Sunday Times `A shudderingly well written, dead-real, hallucinatory trip across Famine Ireland.' Emma Donoghue, author of Room 'Lynch's book is a celebration of the human spirit in even the most trying of circumstances and the steps we take to ensure our survival.' Irish Independent

Author Information

Paul Lynch is the author of the novels Red Sky in Morning, The Black Snow and Grace. He won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018 for his third novel, Grace, which was also shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction & the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 2018. The Black Snow won France's Prix Libr'à Nous for Best Foreign Novel, and was a finalist for the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize). He lives in Dublin with his wife and daughter. His website is www.paullynchwriter.com

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