How to build a boat

Thirteen-year-old Jamie O’Neill loves the colour red. And tall trees, wind and rain, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. He wants two things more than anything else: to build a perpetual motion machine, and to communicate with his mother, who died soon after he was born. In Jamie's mind, these two things are closely linked. And at his new school, where everything confuses and overwhelms him, he finds two people who might be able to help him with this wish.

The captivating novel How to Build a Boat tells the story of how one boy and his mission will change the lives of his teachers, Tess and Tadhg. This gentle yet powerful story is about love, family and human connection, about the power of imagination and how we never experience the greatest adventures alone.

Elaine Feeney is from the west of Ireland. In 2020, she made her debut with the novel As You Were, which was shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year and won the Kate O’Brien Award. Elaine Feeney is also known as a poet—she has published three collections to date—and a short story writer. She teaches at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Her second novel, How to Build a Boat, was longlisted for the Booker Prize.