Praise for How to Build a Boat
"The interweaving stories of Jamie, a teenage boy trying to make sense of the world, and Tess, a teacher at his school, make up this humorous and insightful novel about family and the need for connection. Feeney has written an absorbing coming-of-age story which also explores the restrictions of class and education in a small community. A complex and genuinely moving novel."
-The Booker Prize 2023 judges
"Atmospheric [...] Feeney's prose is both careful and relaxed–detailed in its description of place and character and of the effortful human urge to find order in the natural world; casual in its approach to storytelling."
–Sophie Ward, New York Times
"This tender novel, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, follows a boy as he works to build a perpetual motion machine, which to him is not just an engineering project, but a way to get closer to the mother he never knew."
–New York Times
"The Irish novelist and poet's second novel centres on a neuro-atypical boy called Jamie as he dreams of creating a perpetual-motion machine to connect with his mother, who died giving birth to him. When that proves untenable, a kindly shop teacher at his school gets him to help build a currach–a traditional Irish boat that will usefully serve as both vessel and metaphor."
–Globe and Mail
"A wonderful book that earned its rightful place on this year's Booker Prize longlist."
–Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Feeney's titular boat, a handcrafted currach technically, features prominently in the novel's final pages, and damned if I wasn't wiping tears and holding back sniffles as the thing floated downriver. [...] Fumbling but continuing to strive to give life's terminal messiness some shape, Feeney's trio [of characters] captivate with their everyday heroism of muddling though; they ask important questions and make do with provisional answers."
–Toronto Star
"Feeney's skill at interweaving characters, at once as simple and complex as the currach, make for an enjoyable read."
–Winnipeg Free Press
"Harrowing and brilliant."
–New York Magazine
"Elaine Feeney's new novel, How to Build a Boat, concerns how families come into being, stay together and come apart."
–Times Literary Supplement
"One of those rare books that leaves you feeling less lonely. An uplifting tale of community, healing and the small connections that can change a life. A gorgeous gift of a novel, hopeful and full of humanity."
–Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize winning author of Shuggie Bain
"In her second novel after her 2020 debut As You Were, Irish writer Elaine Feeney [...] creates real, fiercely believable people, the kind you will never want to forget. [...] It is a privilege to read such a novel, and it richly deserves its place on this year's Booker longlist. It is suffused with generosity, wisdom and understanding."
–Financial Times
"The author's skill at laying bare her characters' anxieties gave this book an intimacy I wasn't expecting, while at the same time taking a sharp look at issues of class."
–Zoomer
"How to Build a Boat [...] is a heart-rending and delightful voyage in the company of 13-year-old Jamie O'Neill and his currach. The author Elaine Feeney has a poet's way with word
