[4] By the Sea is narrated, in part, by a man named Saleh Omar, who is attempting to enter the United Kingdom on a fake passport.

A UK social worker, Rachel, who specializes in difficult immigration cases, plays a crucial role in the novel.

[8] Michael Pye, in a review for The New York Times, notes the novel's self-conscious echoes of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener".

Saleh Omar, the protagonist, quotes Bartleby's mantra "I would prefer not to"; Pye argues that "[b]y invoking Melville, Gurnah opens a little inquest into the nature of pity itself.

"[9] Critic Sissy Helff argues that By the Sea "is a fine example of a confrontation of readers with a highly complex picture of the predicament of refugees in the wake of movement and migration".