Claire Keegan

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is. Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.

Foster

Essence

‘Where there's a secret,' she says, 'there's shame -and shame is something we can do without.’

Barbara

Where there's a secret, she says, there is shame, and shame is something we can do without.

I'm amending my review because after really going out of my way to read literary criticsm of this book, I'm realizing that's an indication I enjoyed it. I think this is a 4 star book, and feel I might rate it higher if I read the book rather than audiobooked it. The writing was so simple and really felt like the main character's POV (a child). It was so simple yet powerfully indicated what it was trying to say.

One quote which many point to in this book is "Kinsella takes my hand in his. As soon as he takes it, I realize my father has never once held my hand, and some part of me wants Kinsella to let me go so I won’t have to feel this. It’s a hard feeling but as we walk along I begin to settle and let the difference between my life at home and the one I have here be. He takes shorter steps so we can walk in time. I think about the woman in the cottage, of how she walked and spoke, and conclude that there are huge differences between people."

It was the embodiment childhoood innocence and a realization that helps the girl grow up and realize the differences in conditions she was raised. I think Claire Keegan is a modern literary legend. 

Ashley Denktas

I'm amending my review because after really going out of my way to read literary criticsm of this book, I'm realizing that's an indication I enjoyed it. I think this is a 4 star book, and feel I might rate it higher if I read the book rather than audiobooked it. The writing was so simple and really felt like the main character's POV (a child). It was so simple yet powerfully indicated what it was trying to say.

One quote which many point to in this book is "Kinsella takes my hand in his. As soon as he takes it, I realize my father has never once held my hand, and some part of me wants Kinsella to let me go so I won’t have to feel this. It’s a hard feeling but as we walk along I begin to settle and let the difference between my life at home and the one I have here be. He takes shorter steps so we can walk in time. I think about the woman in the cottage, of how she walked and spoke, and conclude that there are huge differences between people."

It was the embodiment childhoood innocence and a realization that helps the girl grow up and realize the differences in conditions she was raised. I think Claire Keegan is a modern literary legend. 

“I look out across the sea. There, the two lights are blinking as before, but with another, steady light, shining in between.”

shen

never knew a book so short could make me feel so much

emotional, melancholic, and evocative. foster is such a heart-breaking tale despite its short length

Kirsten Kim

James Wattie

Beautifully written story. Quick read. Lines I’ll remember for a while.

ren corr

tori

Beautifully written, and I hope to reread this again one day. Sometimes we only get to experience a certain kind of love for a short while, but it profoundly changes us and our world view.

This is a stunning novella by Claire Keegan. She packs a punch in writing about simple domestic life in Ireland where you see the heart and heartbreak of everyday people. I loved it.

Foster

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