A rich,tender Irish beauty told in only 88 pages. Each word is perfectly placed rendering an unforgettable story with characters that seep deeply into your heart. Not to be missed.

What a terrific find this little book was and I have no idea how I missed out on this one for so long. Foster by Claire Keegan is skilfully crafterd and thought a provoking Novella which really brought me back to my childhood with its wonderful sense of Irishness and it's rich prose and unsettling storyline. This for me is the Ireland of the 1980s and Claire Keegan has truly got inside the mind of a child and crafted a story where what is unsaid is more important than what is actually said."ima

“You don’t ever have to say anything,” he says. “Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many’s the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.”When a young girl from Clonegal, Ireland, in 1981, goes with her father to a farm in Wexford she has no idea what to expect. Told only that she will be staying with a man and his wife, the Kinsellas, she doesn’t know if she will ever be going back home. Her mother, Mary, is with child and near her time. With too

The writing is exquisite- flawless ....An absolute gem of a tiny novella.

The language is sparse, the young girl never has her name mentioned, rather she is called tulip and other names. Poignant, sensitive, endearing and bittersweet. So much is related in such a small book. Enjoyed this novella very much.

The first confusion is the cover and the title. Almost monochromatic, some children and ‘Foster’ written across in big letters. I was ready to dismiss it as another product of misery lit but before I turned away I noticed something about the ‘New Yorker’. As it turns out, Claire Keegan is an accomplished writer and ‘Foster’ appeared as a short story in the New Yorker before it appeared in a slightly expanded version as a stand-alone book. For a publisher to do something as reckless as to publish...

A poor Irish family, large with children, is going through a rough patch. They live near Clonegal so it is a fair long trip for her father to drive the little girl to spend some time with her relatives on the coast in Wexford. She allows her imagination to form pictures in her mind of who the Kinsellas might be: what they look like, how they are, what their home (and hers for the next while) is like.While she lives with the couple, the little girl experiences many things she had never encountere...

A beautifully written, award-winning short story about a young girl from a large Irish family who spends a summer on the coast of Wexford with childless “foster” parents John and Edna Kinsella. For the first time in her short life, our protagonist is lovingly nurtured and encouraged and included. We never learn her actual name but know her through the kind endearments the Kinsellas use for her: leanbh (“baby girl”), Petal, good girl, girleen. In her crowded home in Clonegal, she is called “you”

A beautifully written story that takes place in Ireland and set in 1981, Foster is about love, kindness and compassion, and how they impact a child. The story is simple and peaceful, but also vivid and expressive. It may not be as 'impactful' as Small Things Like These, but Keegan's lyrical writing is a pleasure to read and does not need an event as a backdrop to stand out and stay memorable.A young girl is fostered to stay with a couple on an Irish Wexford farm, while the girl's pregnant mother...

"It's too good, she is. She wants to find the good in others, and sometimes her way of finding that is to trust them, hoping she'll not be disappointed but she sometimes is." ― Claire KeeganJudging by the title and the cover, Foster was not what I expected, yet was everything I could have wanted it to be. The writing is so pure that there is no effort in the reading. I absorbed every word and was transported to a farm in Ireland where I met a girl with long legs, taken by her impoverished fa

”It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heartWithout saying a word you can light up the darkTry as I may I could never explain what I hear when you don’t say a thing” --When You Say Nothing At All, Alison Krauss, Songwriters: Don Schlitz / Paul OverstreetSet in Wexford, Ireland, in the 1980s, this is a quiet, beautifully written story, less than 100 pages, which began as an even shorter story. Beautifully written, this says so much with so few words - about love, and kindness and how transfo...

Very beautiful. Short and to the point. With a lot left for the imagination. The twist at the end was very unsuspected. Incredibly well told.

"If I hadn't seen such richesI could live with being poor." —From the song Sit Down, by James.Set in rural Ireland, this very short story is spoken in the first-person narrative by a dirt-poor tinker’s daughter whose anonymity throughout serves to emphasise her incidental existence.The girl's struggling mother, who gives birth as frequently as a hen lays eggs, has another on the way, so leaves the child in the care of the Kinsellas - farming relatives whom the kid has never met. It swiftly be

This story is narrated by a young girl who is fostered out to another family during the summer months in Wexford, Ireland 1981.This girl comes from a struggling and overcrowded family and with the foster family, she sees a different sort of life, and she thrives from the affection shown to her.I was very moved by this very short novella.

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."(Letter 16, 1657)”― Blaise Pascal, The Provincial LettersPoignant novella about a young girl from rural Ireland fostered out to relatives during a summer in the 1980s. I loved this author’s style of writing. The language is spare and much is implied as details are slowly unfolding. It’s a great example of showing instead of just telling a story and made all the more powerful and vital for it. I’m the ninth o...

"You don't ever have to say anything," he says. "Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing."Secrets and Lies in 1981 County Wexford. 88 perfect pages. Faultless, graceful, haunting. I hope Keegan writes more soon. Well, not more. Because it's what she leaves out that makes it such a marvel, so no, not more. But more of this kind of minimalism. A starvation diet like the hunger striker whose death forms

Set in Ireland in the 1980s, a young girl is left by her father with another family one summer. She has no idea how long she will stay there or even if she will ever return to her own family. She experiences a lot of warmth and affection that she has never known and she thrives on it, but of course it will end. I won’t say more about the story. It would surely ruin it. It doesn’t seem like much, but it is quite stunning. Keegan writes beautifully, but more importantly her writing is never heavy

A short, subtle, evocatively written novella.

Everything about this book says "simple" - the language, the story, the title, but after you read this, you realise nothing about it is simple. It's quite moving and sad. The best thing about this was definitely the writing. The way Claire Keegan tells the story is amazing. The little girl doesn't say much about her family but eventually you're able to create this picture in your head with all the little pieces of information she does tell you and you fill in the gaps where you need to. So for a...