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How to Build a Boat

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How to Build a Boat

By: Elaine Feeney
Narrated by: Ciaran O'Brien
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023.

A deeply moving novel about a boy and his dream, from the prize-winning author of As You Were

Jamie O'Neill loves the colour red. He also loves tall trees, patterns, rain that comes with wind, the curvature of many objects, books with dust jackets, cats, rivers and Edgar Allan Poe. At age 13 there are two things he especially wants in life: to build a Perpetual Motion Machine, and to connect with his mother Noelle, who died when he was born. In his mind these things are intimately linked. And at his new school, where all else is disorientating and overwhelming, he finds two people who might just be able to help him.

How to Build a Boat is the story of how one boy and his mission transforms the lives of his teachers, Tess and Tadhg, and brings together a community. Written with tenderness and verve, it's about love, family and connection, the power of imagination, and how our greatest adventures never happen alone.

©2023 Elaine Feeney (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural World Literature

Critic Reviews

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)
A heart-stopping read and a stunning, resonant exploration of a community, a motherless boy and living an authentic life. (Sinéad Gleeson)
What a gorgeous book. Unsentimental but generous, sharp as a teacher's side-eye and bursting with soul. (Lisa McInerney)
How to Build a Boat is a gentle tsunami of a novel, so beautifully and tenderly crafted you don't even notice you're being swept along. It gets right to the heart of what it means to be broken and searching for community. I can't wait for readers to fall in love with Jamie's refreshingly sideways take on life. (Jan Carson)
A story of absence, love, loss, courage and resilience lit up from within, Elaine Feeney's How To Build A Boat is an emotionally resonant tour-de-force very much in keeping with the unforgettable spirit of her debut As You Were. (Alan McMonagle)
Utterly absorbing... so intelligent and human... sharp and subtle with beautiful poetic language. Feeney is one of those rare authors who can perform linguistic acrobatics while her characters tenderly break your heart. (Edel Coffey)
A hopeful, uplifting story of people reclaiming power over their own lives, celebrating creativity and diversity in the face of those who would punish difference. A poignant and exhilarating story exquisitely told in Feeney's stunning prose. (Danielle McLaughlin)
I really loved How to Build a Boat. It's a beautiful, moving, uplifting book about the ways people differ and the ways they connect. It will make you feel better. (Patrick Freyne)
Sensitive and insightful about those who help us to rediscover our sense of wonder. Full of beautiful human complexity. (Rónán Hession, author of PANENKA)
The portrayal of Jamie's struggle is extraordinarily poignant, and the book sails to a tender and almost heart-breaking crescendo of hope forged through honesty and imagination
All stars
Most relevant
I loved this book, so well written and captures diversity so well, very topical.
The narrator is excellent too.

Really interesting book and really well read. Highly recommend.

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Jamie is thirteen, on the spectrum, and life is just tough for him in high school. He is smart, quirky and is obsessed with creating a Perpetual Motion Machine to connect with his dead mother. Tess and Tadgh are two teachers with problems of their own. But they are kind. They bond with Jamie. And they build a boat together.

Irish writer Elaine Feeney is also a poet and it shows. Her portrayal of Jamie is sensitive and skillful - he is often funny and delightfully original, so we see him as much more than just a boy with a disorder, but as a whole person.

“How to Build A Boat” is that rarest of things - a hopeful book. Parts of it made me laugh, and it moved me deeply. The epilogue was so beautifully written I had to listen to it twice, just to hear it again.

What a marvel.

Beautiful, hopeful novel

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Loved the portrayal of Jamie as an autistic teenager genius and of the people around him and how they were with him, but also the beautiful love story between Tess and Taig (?spelling!). Excellent narration and beautiful writing. Highly recommend this book.

Incredible narration & writing

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.