‘Foster’ by Claire Keegan

“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 opportunityay nothing.”

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

It’s a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household where everything is so well tended to.

Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award, in this novella Keegan expertly captures feelings of belonging and home, and how a young child feels when encountering another home and family for the first time. Small children don’t have a sense that their way of doing things is not universal and that homes can be different. This simple sparse work is short but offers emotional depth to be savoured.

A few weeks ago I enjoyed Small Things Like These which also paints a family portrait. There’s not a lot of action in Keegan’s books but there is movement of thought and understanding as well as beautiful sentences and imagery to ponder. Like the quote above, there’s sometimes much to say in what is unsaid, as long as we pay attention. Listening to the Irish narrator Aoife McMahon read the book in the audio format, was an added treat.

Keegan’s books feel like modern classics that lend themselves to rereading. Foster has become part of the school curriculum in her native Ireland.