From A Low And Quiet Sea

Ryan’s disturbing book seems at first to consist of unrelated stories about three men whose lives have taken them to dark places. Farouk, a doctor desperate to escape Syria, has entrusted his family to people-smugglers; Lampy is a broken-hearted young Irishman with a dead-end job; John, a corrupt lobbyist, looks back on a lifetime of sins. Only in the last chapter – ingeniously, though perhaps too neatly – do the links between them become clear. Farouk’s tale stands head and shoulders above the others, and is as moving as anything written about Syria; but Lampy’s and John’s also have a gritty authenticity.

Anthony Gardner