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Product Description
Book Description
A heartbreaking, haunting story of childhood, loss and love by one of Ireland's most acclaimed writers.
Product Description
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Claire Keegan made her mark as a writer of note in 1999 with her short story collection "Antarctica". She followed this up in 2007 with her second sublime collection - "Walk the Blue Fields".
With her book "Foster" Claire Keegan has continued the great tradition of Irish writing - she has stated her admiration for the great Irish writers John McGahern and William Trevor on more than one occasion. "Foster" was first published as a short story in "Davy Byrnes Short Stories" having won the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award in Ireland for an outstanding short story in 2009 . Faber and Faber have decided to publish "Foster" in an expanded novella format and it is, in my opinion, fully justified and a resounding success.
The story is centred on the life of a young girl in 1960s/70s rural Ireland. It hinges around her experiences when she spends a summer holiday with an aunt and uncle. She experiences a happy, untroubled life during this holiday. This experience awakes in her an appreciation of the difficulties she had previously considered a normal feature of family life. A watershed and defining time in a young girl's life. Claire Keegan delivers her story in many layers. It is subtle and at the same time very profound.
I can highly recommend "Foster" - it is a short read but one that is extremely profound and moving. It is a real gem. Claire Keegan is one of the finest Irish writers of this generation. Not alone do I recommend "Foster" but also the two previous short story collections which I mentioned earlier.
With her book "Foster" Claire Keegan has continued the great tradition of Irish writing - she has stated her admiration for the great Irish writers John McGahern and William Trevor on more than one occasion. "Foster" was first published as a short story in "Davy Byrnes Short Stories" having won the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award in Ireland for an outstanding short story in 2009 . Faber and Faber have decided to publish "Foster" in an expanded novella format and it is, in my opinion, fully justified and a resounding success.
The story is centred on the life of a young girl in 1960s/70s rural Ireland. It hinges around her experiences when she spends a summer holiday with an aunt and uncle. She experiences a happy, untroubled life during this holiday. This experience awakes in her an appreciation of the difficulties she had previously considered a normal feature of family life. A watershed and defining time in a young girl's life. Claire Keegan delivers her story in many layers. It is subtle and at the same time very profound.
I can highly recommend "Foster" - it is a short read but one that is extremely profound and moving. It is a real gem. Claire Keegan is one of the finest Irish writers of this generation. Not alone do I recommend "Foster" but also the two previous short story collections which I mentioned earlier.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have subscribed to the " New Yorker" magazine but I have only once felt compelled to cut out and keep a short story. That story was " Foster" by Claire Keegan.
I am connected to the setting of the story. I went to boarding school in Wexford for many years and feel a sense of kinship with that beautiful county and it's people. But I was delighted to learn that I was far from alone in regarding the story as a masterpiece and that many, many people find the clarity and lucidity of the writing astonishing.
" Foster" details the experience of a child who is sent to live with her Mother's relatives for the summer - a not uncommon occurrence in rural Ireland. What is extraordinary is the way in which the contrast between the two households is delineated in such delicate and telling detail.The child, passive at first, a transient in the indecipherable world of adults, seems indifferent to her placement, aware only that adults are unpredictable. But soon her assumptions are being challenged. As she observes her father's casual bad manners, hears him lie about the harvest, and realizes that he has never held her hand, she becomes aware that adults can, and do, behave very differently. The men, in particular, are beautifully drawn with the child's Uncle being surely one of the most lovingly created characters in recent literature.
The heat of the summer, the structured days, the plentiful food and kindness and warmth of her foster parents begin to thaw and change the child. She blossoms. But her foster parents have a secret - a sadness - something that they do not speak of. That is no hindrance to a spiteful neighbor, who delights in discovering the secret to the child at the first opportunity.
How the uncovering of that secret affects the child, and what happens when she is summoned back to her own house by the arrival of the start of school is beautifully resolved in Ms. Keegan's marvelous story. Her depiction of the confusion of a child returned to a place of familiarity from a place of comfort and security will stay with the reader for months.
I am connected to the setting of the story. I went to boarding school in Wexford for many years and feel a sense of kinship with that beautiful county and it's people. But I was delighted to learn that I was far from alone in regarding the story as a masterpiece and that many, many people find the clarity and lucidity of the writing astonishing.
" Foster" details the experience of a child who is sent to live with her Mother's relatives for the summer - a not uncommon occurrence in rural Ireland. What is extraordinary is the way in which the contrast between the two households is delineated in such delicate and telling detail.The child, passive at first, a transient in the indecipherable world of adults, seems indifferent to her placement, aware only that adults are unpredictable. But soon her assumptions are being challenged. As she observes her father's casual bad manners, hears him lie about the harvest, and realizes that he has never held her hand, she becomes aware that adults can, and do, behave very differently. The men, in particular, are beautifully drawn with the child's Uncle being surely one of the most lovingly created characters in recent literature.
The heat of the summer, the structured days, the plentiful food and kindness and warmth of her foster parents begin to thaw and change the child. She blossoms. But her foster parents have a secret - a sadness - something that they do not speak of. That is no hindrance to a spiteful neighbor, who delights in discovering the secret to the child at the first opportunity.
How the uncovering of that secret affects the child, and what happens when she is summoned back to her own house by the arrival of the start of school is beautifully resolved in Ms. Keegan's marvelous story. Her depiction of the confusion of a child returned to a place of familiarity from a place of comfort and security will stay with the reader for months.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's her remarkably sustained and understated way of arranging the word son paper that makes Claire Keegan a delight. I read this in an hour too. This does not make it slight: it makes it compelling. Just beautiful, faceted, subtle prose. Something this "effortless" is painstaking work indeed. Here's to you, Claire: short prose artists are thin on the ground. You're a gem.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant sensitive short story
This is a quietly written, totally gripping, short story, by Claire Keegan, who is one of Ireland's great contemporary story writers. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Natasha Tolstoy
An Interesting Novella/Long Story, Beautifully Written, Occasionally...
The premise of `Foster' is initially rather simple. An unnamed girl has been sent to live with a foster family in the rural countryside of Wexford in Ireland not too far from her... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Simon Savidge Reads
A poignant story beautifully written
This is a moving story of a nameless girl, who is uprooted from her home to live with her mother's relatives for one summer. The contrast between the two homes is startling. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Leicsliz
Excellent novella
In this short novella, which is a revised and expanded version of an earlier short story, a young girl is sent to stay with relatives on a farm in rural Ireland. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Eleanor
Sheer Perfection
Wow! What an absolutely beautiful, scintillating gem of a book - 96 pages of pure perfection. If I was to recommend a book to all of my friends, both avid and reluctant readers,... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Lovely Treez
Whats all the fuss about
Read it in an hour, a very over-rated short story, more suitable for a sunday magazine
Published 19 months ago by Somerset Simmo
Beautifully written
I really enjoyed this book, the story of a young girl, sent to live with her aunt and uncle, it is told in a way that is so simple and yet beautiful to read.
Published 20 months ago by michelle
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