Foster - Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan books are selling like pints of Guinness on music night at the moment. She has won awards and plaudits from people and publications far more qualified than me, but I think we will look back in years to come and say that a truly great writer was working quietly among us. She is not flashy, not in the least. In scale her stories may be small, but the precision with which she peels back the skin of her setting to allow you, the reader, to examine the depths of her characters' souls is masterly. And the writing, sentence to sentence, is sublime.

Foster tells a simple story of a young girl sent to live with relatives on a farm in rural Ireland. The girl is trusting, and finds affection and care in her new home that she is unused to. But there is sadness in the walls of the house hiding an unspoken secret. 

Foster is short. It is utterly wonderful. The author David Mitchell says 'As good as Chekhov.' Read it as soon as you possibly can.