Our book group choice for March 2025 is The Sea by John Banville. It is a haunting and elegiac exploration of memory, loss, and the deceptive nature of recollection. Following the recent death of his wife, Anna, art historian Max Morden retreats to the seaside town of Ballyless, the very place where he spent a formative summer as a young boy.
Here, amidst the familiar yet subtly altered landscape, he seeks solace and attempts to reconstruct the fragments of his past.
The sea, an ever-present and mutable entity, becomes a metaphor for the fluidity of memory, mirroring Max’s fragmented and unreliable recollections. He delves into the past, recalling the enigmatic Grace family—the flamboyant Carlo, the aloof Connie, and their captivating twins, Myles and Chloe—whose presence profoundly impacted his adolescence. The summer spent with them is a shimmering, almost dreamlike memory, interwoven with the present-day grief he endures.
Banville masterfully crafts a narrative that blurs the lines between past and present, reality and illusion. Max’s memories are not linear or precise; they are coloured by his emotional state, distorted by time, and imbued with a sense of melancholic ambiguity. The sea, the house, and the people of Ballyless become both anchors and mirages, reflecting Max’s internal turmoil.
As he grapples with Anna’s death and revisits the echoes of his youth, Max confronts the fragility of human connection and the enduring power of loss.
Discussion Questions
To come
Individual Ratings
Anthony's Rating 
DKB's Rating
EmmaT's Rating
Hayley's Rating
Baljit's Rating
Catherine's Rating
Sue's Rating