Tres Llums

by Claire Keegan, Marta Hernández Pibernat (Translator), Zahara Méndez Hernández (Translator)

Una nena petita passa un estiu en una granja irlandesa amb uns pares d’acollida, sense saber quan tornarà a casa. Entre aquests estranys troba un afecte que fins aleshores no coneixia i descobreix un secret. Claire Keegan ens ofereix un relat molt suggerent, d’una gran bellesa i una immensa fondària emocional, al voltant de la família, l’amor i la pèrdua. Tres llums, guardonat el 2009 amb el Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award, és una mostra de l’enorme talent de l’autora.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Ireland, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novella, Audiobook

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2010

About the author

Claire Keegan was raised on a farm in Wicklow. She completed her undergraduate studies at Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana and subsequently earned an MA at The University of Wales and an M.Phil at Trinity College, Dublin.

Her first collection of stories, Antarctica, was a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Her second, Walk the Blue Fields, was Richard Ford’s book of the year. Her works have won several awards including The Hugh Leonard Bursary, The Macaulay Fellowship, The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, The Martin Healy Prize, The Olive Cook Award, The Kilkenny Prize, The Tom Gallon Award and The William Trevor Prize, judged by William Trevor. Twice was Keegan the recipient of the Francis MacManus Award. She was also a Wingate Scholar. She lives in Wexford.

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘I feel at such a loss for words but this is a new place, and new words are needed.’

I love when a novel is deceptively simplistic, seeming sparse on the surface but revealing intricacies of emotion and meaning the more you unpack each scene. In this case, you unpack a sucker punch of feelings straight to the heart and we are all better for it. Claire Keegan’s Foster is such a book, being taut and economical in Keegan’s pitch perfect prose but delivering an emotional resonance far surpassing its brief 80pgs. Originally published in 2010 in Ireland where it garnered awards and school curriculum reading, Foster has finally arrived on US shelves, no doubt aided by the success of her recent novella, Small Things Like These , which was nominated for the Booker Prize this year, and the film adaptation of this book. I found Foster to be even tighter and more succinct, which was to its benefit though Small Things was fantastic itself, and this novella manages to say so much in all the unsaid moments. Thriving through a story taking place beyond the grasp of the pre-teen girl who narrates the story, Foster is a tiny, bittersweet masterpiece that captures the aches and living and comforts of love all set against a lush Irish landscape.

‘“I try to remember another time when I felt like this and am sad because I can’t remember a time, and happy, too, because I cannot.’

Foster is a simple enough story, a young girl is sent to live with distant relatives for a summer while her mother is pregnant with yet another child and the short time together builds a deep emotional resonance in the lives of the girl and the Kinsellas who take her in. While it is a tight and succinct novel, Keegan depicts gorgeous landscapes and has an ear for dialogue that brings this story to life and makes you feel like you are with them as they run to the Irish sea or play cards amidst the laughter of the night. While there are only a few passing scenes of domestic life—a shopping trip, life around the house doing chores together, walks through nature and a wake—a whole world of emotions explodes from every sentence, even if the narrator can’t quite corral them into words.

‘I have learned enough, grown enough, to know that what happened is not something I need ever mention.’

There is a beauty in the way Foster exists most in awkward spaces, in the silences between words, the space between dark and light, or between understanding. ‘Everything changes into something else,’ the narrator observes, ‘turns into some version of what it was before,’ and we are met with frequent references to the world around her in moments of flux. This is a very loving household, though one that values both openness and knowing when words are not necessary. Mrs. Kinsella is upfront about this from the start: ‘‘Where there’s a secret,’ she says, ‘there’s shame – and shame is something we can do without.’’This seems to contrast with the narrator’s home life, one we are lead to assume has landed her here because the father drinks and gambles too much and they have too many mouths to feed than they can afford with another on the way. We also have Mr. Kinsella’s thoughts on not always needing to speak:

’‘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.’’

Better to be quiet than be a fool. Though this is also reflective of the novella itself and how so much understanding is in the unsaid. Much of this is built through the perspective of the narrative that is attempting to recount ‘things I don’t fully understand, things which may not even be intended for me,’ and written only through how she is able to comprehend the world around her. There are cute flourishes such as the narrator mentioning Mrs. Kinsella asking for ‘Aunt Acid’ at the pharmacist (presumably antacid) and other misreadings that no attention is called to and brings the narrative voice alive. It is a massive success and sticks the emotional landing through the dramatic irony that we are watching the narrator just on the cusp of understanding while ourselves knowing how her heart will inevitably crack open when it sinks in deeper in the time after the novel has concluded.

The idea of silence, however, also plays into the political backdrop of the novel and the culture of silence that permeated Ireland during The Troubles. The wrong words, or any words at all, could land you on the wrong side of the violence. Midway through the book there is a brief conversation about a hunger striker who has died, reminding us of the violence lurking within the idyllic landscapes of Ireland and Kinsella questions if he has earned being well fed while people are starving for freedom. 'A man starved himself to death but here I am on a fine day with two women feeding me.' Of course this also juxtaposes the girl's family and her starving sisters and asks us if they deserve to go without due to the sins of their father. Perhaps some of the darkest aspects of the book go in silence as well, only hinted at—Kinsella teaching the girl to run the very specific distance from a house to a road, her bed wetting and avoidance of her own father seem to possibly imply an abuse that is never vocalized.

‘He looks happy but some part of me feels sorry for every version of him.’

There is a tender, sore spot at the center of the novella that is only addressed briefly and directly once, but the bruise is felt throughout. The Kinsellas are a loving family now without a child, trying to do best by the girl now in their care while also trying to not resent her family who have many children growing up without care. This novel drifts dreamily through the summer towards an inevitable end and a final paragraph that is certain to tug your heartstrings into tears. We see the girl being as much a gift for growth to the Kinsellas as they are for her, with the girl observing ‘I feel I have her balanced,’ about Mrs. Kinsella. In a scene ripe with symbolism, the man is only able to find her footprints to retrace home and jokes ‘You must have carried me there,’ though this is the sort of joke that reveals a deeper emotional truth about their attachment. My heart skipped a beat when, looking out over the sea, he points to the three lights in the sky and says that earlier there had only been two. 'There, the two lights are blinking as before, but with another, steady light, shining in between.' The imagery is beautiful.

'My heart does not so much feel that it is in my chest as in my hands, and that I am carrying it along swiftly, as though I have become the messenger for what is going on inside of me'

I can’t stress enough how beautiful and emotionally charged Foster was for me. David Mitchell has compared it to Anton Chekhov which isn’t wrong, as each sentence feels carefully crafted and chosen in construction of this sturdy and succinct little story that has a power as deep as books thrice it’s size. Keegan has an ear for dialogue and a gift for perfect sentences that feel like squeezing an ocean from a stone and Foster is a miraculous novella of the ways love can creep in and fill our hearts.

5/5

‘As soon as he takes it, I realise 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.’

**Update: Finally watched the film adaptation— An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl)—and it was absolutely wonderful. I cried again. Shoutout to my partner finding it online as it’s not in the US yet. Great performances, they change Mr Kinsella at the start a bit but it builds nicely due to that, and I loved that it’s mostly in Gaeilge. The interpretation of the final scene is great and I like how it shows the duality of the final line. Watch the trailer here.**

[emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

we all have soulmates. mine is short literary fiction.

anyone can write a long book and make you care about characters when they have hundreds of pages to do it. managing to make me love three people so much in 84 pages that i cry to say goodbye to them, when i've spent barely a magazine in their company, is magic.

this is a short book, but it is perfect. i loved every page of it in a year where i barely seem to find books i like.

what a gift!

bottom line: magic.

[Jaline · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 encountered before, and her mind is busy absorbing and sorting and placing these thoughts and feelings where she feels comfortable with them. Her relatives spend time talking with her, teaching her, and validating her. Even when she makes mistakes, it is given to her to figure out how to do better next time.

She also goes with them to a funeral and through people she meets there, she sees reflections of her old life at home – attitudes, compulsions - the stirring of pots that don’t need stirring, the small unkindnesses that may not be meant but are uncomfortable all the same.

And then, after time has passed, the letter comes asking the relatives to bring her back home.

This short story is a treasure. There are lessons on nearly every page that we can all learn from. I know that I did. The writing is beautiful, the cadence of melodious speech pitch-perfect. I highlighted so many fresh and inspiring passages that I have had to refrain from including any of them in this review: I simply can’t choose only a few.

When I love a book or a story, I talk about how I feel about it and what I think about it, but in my reviews I rarely ever encourage my friends and anyone else who is reading random reviews to go out and find the title and read it. Immediately, if not sooner. I am saying it now, because I believe this story has something of value for each of us. Maybe not the same “something’s”, but that isn’t the point. It is all about the adventure, the seeking, the finding, and the joy of experiencing a wonderful story well told.

Thank you to our esteemed author and revered book friend, Kevin Ansbro, for bringing this story to my attention. You were right – it probably did take less time to read this than the time it takes to make a casserole!

[Kevin Ansbro · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If I hadn't seen such riches
I 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 becomes clear that our young narrator is unused to home comforts; even a hot bath is alien to her. The Kinsellas (themselves bereft of a child) are only too happy to lavish their unsentimental brand of love upon their menial charge.

Much is intimated but left unsaid by the author. Keegan expects her readers to fill in the gaps and draw their own conclusions. The girl is damaged but her wretched life has at least taught her to observe and adapt.
Cautiously, she begins to blossom in her bright new world of hot baths and unbidden kindness. Slowly but surely our child-in-limbo dares to become the flower that grows through a crack in a pavement.
The prose is deliberately sparse, which I didn't mind as it perfectly suited the gritty subject matter. In an almost surreal fashion, the characters ghost around each other, amping up the overall sense of detachment and fear of commitment (put me in mind of Bruce Willis's solitary interaction with humans in The Sixth Sense).

Although I'm not usually a fan of a bare-bones narrative, there is clear evidence here of the author's confident penmanship. It's an intelligent piece, mostly because of the details that are kept from us, and which loom large in our imagination.

I won't be giving anything away by saying that the girl's conflicting loyalties are vividly captured in a poignant, almost cinematic, final scene.

Not the best book I'll read this year, but an achingly sad and evocative capturing of a moment in time that requires the reader to work in tandem with the author.

[Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Claire Keegan's almost perfect novella, Small Things Like These (review here). I was looking forward to reading/listening to more of her work and decided on only other novella. She mainly wrote short stories, will get to them soon enough.

Foster was really good, powerful and tender but it somehow did not touch me as much. Maybe because I already knew what to expect from the author. A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland for an unknown time. There, she discover warmth and affection but also a secret.

It is written in first person and, if I remember well, there was more in what was not on the page than what was written.

[Gaurav Sagar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything changes into something else, turns into some version of what it was before.

It is the second book by the author I read in last fortnight, normally I don’t read more than one book by an author in such a short span of time, but the author here delightfully forced me to do so. The world of Claire Keegan is the familiar one with tight prose, beautifully honed out of the various probable mix of words to produce shimmering text of miraculous potency. The book may be slim in the size but the impact it has on its reader is equivalent to that of a few hundred pages long book. Claire Keegan is an author of sparse, and thin but assertive sentences which beam with inexpressible joy of lively prose.


While the big books have their importance as they draw out the characters’ life from various aspects, these pristine gems with formational brilliance stand apart as if the venerated space, they live in, is too sacred for anyone or anything to touch. The artistic skills required to condense the words to produce such a taut prose is not ubiquitous and in fact, quite rare, for it may require the precision of a surgeon to craft sentences which may convey your views in a few words. We have on one hand literary geniuses like László Krasznahorkai who produce pages long paragraphs without having sentence breaks to portray the reverberating melancholy of life through the ripples of monstrous sentences, so as to be called as master of apocalypse. While on the other hand there are authors such as Claire Keegan who craft their sentences with minimal words however the undulating sensation waves the prose of minimalism may send across the reader are second to none.



link: source


What does it take to write with such a lively succinct prose as if it’s beaming with pure existential bliss, perhaps the aptitude of a patient observer and precision of a woman of exclusive and eclectic tastes. The story starts in the silent rural background of Ireland wherein you may feel the sense of tragic air blowing through the landscape of Keegan; however, it reveals itself in a restrained manner as if precisely controlled by the author as to when to release out or pull back. The author’s world is a provincial one wherein the discussions of her characters, mostly farmers, often hover around the price of cattle, the E.E.C., butter mountains, the cost of lime and sheep-dip.


The reader would appreciate the extraordinary ability of the author to make some of the very old stories to be alive and specific as if they are too unique to be emulated. I guess what differentiate Keegan from others is that though you may guess the story right from the onset but it would surprise you with its stunning liveliness, it takes time to sink in since you keep thinking and imaging it, eventually to be etched in our your consciousness and thereby becoming a part of your memory; it is like swimming through a fresh stream of water which affects you deep in our soul through its melancholic beauty.


We have the narrator as a young girl in the rural Ireland who is sent by her parents to live with the Kinsella family, someone she has not seen before and not familiar with, during the process of her mother, Mary prepares to deliver another child in a household fluttering with children. The house of Kinsella’s echoes the tunes of mystery often associated with human abodes having shadows of bygone existences, as if these apparitions of extended human existence try to convey their miseries and plights. Neither one of us talks, the way people sometimes don’t when they’re happy — but as soon as I have this thought, I realize its opposite is also true.



link: source

The narrator experiences the life in a way which is altogether unknown to her, in the foster care, she is cared for, bathed, taken out to buy new clothing. She gets a new leash on life wherein she is being catered and heard in a way she never has been, as if her being springs out of the sea of nothingness to life and for the first time she feels what it is meant to be truly alive. The man of the house, John teaches her some truths of life to metamorphosize her- “By the time this summer ends,” he promises, “you’ll be like a reindeer.” Gradually her mind shifts to the newly found understanding of life and sense of primal fear creeps in her consciousness while realizing the possibility of shattering of this dreamlike existence on going back to her home.


The author manages to weave in the entire world in just a few thousand odd words as if the entire universe is contained in the foster home. There are some scenes in the book which makes one to feel the magnanimous soup of life, one of them is when the narrator hold Kinsella’s hand, the emotions of the narrator seems to be pouring out with eyes so full of happiness so as to not to say anything as if the sheer joy fills one’s soul to the brim. As soon as he takes it, I realise 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.




link: source

The prose of Keegan is so engrossing that we seem to be in the tight grip of concise but beautiful sentences of the author to see, feel, hear and observe the world of the narrator as if we are having the privilege of first-hand experience. Foster is not a typical minimalist novel like that of Ernst Hemingway or Samuel Beckett but it is somewhat in an enigmatic way having a self-sufficient prose which has all the necessary details intricately infused in it with the precision of an artist of highest grade. The prose of the author may look to be minimal in appearance to the casual reader, but its scope is certainly so full, rich and luxuriant, which may reveal itself more with every reading.



Claire Keegan uses first-person, present tense narrative to intertwine the world of the narrator child as if the things are occurring in the immediacy or perhaps to underline the sanctity of the narrator’s universe as a timeless truth. Though our narrator is a young child here, but the author has masterful in her portrayal to make the story an believable account of innocent but careful and insightful observations of the narrator’s tender age. The requisite balance between the innocence and intelligence quintessential to the age of the narrator is perfectly poised by the author, so as to pull the readers into narrative to feel the emotions of the narrator. This lovely account of saddening beauty of human relationship, its grace, yearnings, pain and emotions will be etched in the memory of the readers for a longtime.

’Nothing happened.’ This is my mother I am speaking to but I have learned enough, grown enough, to know that what happened is not something I need ever mention. It is my perfect opportunity to say nothing.

[Paula K · Rating 5 out of 5]

“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 many children and not many resources her family has decided to foster her out.

Many things are new to her with John and Edna. She finds they lead a different life and adapts to the changes well. There is no punishment here, just learning and kindness. Her foster father calls her Petal. She thrives with their love and affection. They take her to the Irish Sea to play. She is brought to the Town of Gorey for new clothes. She learns how to enjoy cooking.

Winner of the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award, Claire Keegan has written a moving story with tremendous emotional depth. Unforgettable are her final pages which break your heart.

My dear friend Jaline from Canada, and friends to many on Goodreads, wrote a plea to read this novella of 88 pages “immediately, if not sooner.” I decided to take her up on it, and did so. After picking up this book at the library yesterday and reading this story, the author’s prose left me with a variety of emotions and a beautiful feeling.

Read this immediately, if not sooner...

5 out of 5 stars

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foster:
1) encourage or promote the development of
2) bring up

Claire Keegan can do no wrong! Foster is a short story with a bit of a slow start but left me in beautiful tears.

My favorite quotes:

"I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be."

"Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing."

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[JanB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire Keegan writes achingly beautiful stories using few words. She trusts her readers and allows them to read between the lines to find the deeper meaning. This is the type of writing that makes me glad to be a reader.

This is a novella, but one that needs to read slowly in order to read between the lines, and absorb what is being left unsaid. It’s a heartbreaking and poignant look at the power of kindness in the life of a young girl who has known only deprivation, and her rebirth after being shown love and kindness.

In one home she is living in abject poverty and seen as a burden, where even the most basics of needs are not met, especially love. In the other home, she is loved and cherished and seen as deserving of good things.

I love an author who trusts her readers. It’s not the things that are spoken that will break your heart, it’s the things that are unspoken. Her sparse prose belies the deep meaning within. The author is able to say so much and leaves you with a story that begs to be pondered.

And, oh that ending….

*I received a digital copy of the e-book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own

[Kimber Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

"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 Keegan

Judging 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 father to spend the summer with relatives. It sounds like a straightforward tale, but I promise you it is anything but simple.

The youngster, one of many siblings, found herself an only child in this new home environment. It was uncomfortable in a comforting way. Mrs. Kinsella, the substitute mother, scrubbed away the child's dirt and replaced her worn dress with sturdy work clothes. The story is filled with relatable exchanges that might have appeared humdrum if written by a lesser author, but in the hands of Claire Keegan became a cleansing of the soul – mine included.

I don’t want to give away the soulful beauty that lies between the covers of this incredible book. Suffice to say, Foster is eighty-eight pages of brilliance. Keegan wrote the book that my heart already knew about, and by the time I turned the last page, I felt I was that girl in Ireland. Bravo, Ms. Keegan!

If you haven’t read this, I urge you to run - don’t walk - to your nearest bookstore and pick up a copy. It would be a terrible shame to miss this glorious short story!

I’ve already pre-ordered her next book, and I can hardly wait!

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Part of me wants my father to leave me here while another part of me wants him to take me back, to what I know. I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”

At the onset of the novel, we meet our young narrator as she is being driven by her father to a relative’s home in Wexford County in the Irish countryside. She is to remain in John and Edna Kinsella’s care for an undecided interval of time. She has never met the Kinsellas before and is uncertain of how she will fare with her foster family.

” But this is a different type of house. Here there is room, and time to think. There may even be money to spare.”

Edna and John are a kind and compassionate couple. They take care of her and involve her in their daily routine. From what we understand, when compared to her home with her parents, her experience with her foster family is markedly different. Unlike her own family where she is one of many children (her mother, Mary, was heavily pregnant at the time of our young narrator being sent to the Kinsella’s home) and there are more mouths to feed, here she wants for nothing- food, clothing, kindness and a deep emotional connection- a family among whom she feels loved and wanted. She observes that there is a lot of work that is done throughout the day on the farm, but Edna and John proceed at an easy and unhurried pace. Edna and John have secrets and have experienced loss in the past but they embrace this young girl as a part of their family. She reciprocates their feelings and in their care, she thrives. However, this arrangement is temporary and as her time with Edna and John nears its end and she is taken back to her biological family, we share in her realization of how the definition of home and family can change over time. As her heart breaks, our hearts ache for her.

Much is left unsaid and left for the reader to understand and interpret. Claire Keegan’s prose is simple yet elegant. Seen from the eyes of a child, the story revolves around themes of family and belongingness and how even the smallest gestures of kindness can profoundly impact the innocent heart of a child. With its vivid imagery and emotional depth, Claire Keegan’s Foster is a short but impactful story that will stay with you long after you have finished reading. Last year I was first introduced to Clare Keegan’s work with her beautiful novella, Small Things Like These. With Foster, Claire Keegan does not disappoint and proves without a doubt that she is a masterful storyteller.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the digital review copy of this poignant novella. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Terrie Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Foster" by Claire Keegan is a beautifully written short read!

The setting is the Irish countryside in the summer of 1981.

The narration is in the first-person voice of a young daughter whose father takes her to live with an older couple she doesn't know. Her mother is pregnant again and there are many mouths to feed at home. At John and Edna Kinsella's house, she is the only child at the table.

She is shown kindness, given new clothes, and made to feel welcome in her new surroundings. She has chores to do, lessons to learn, and rules to abide by. Yet with daily displays of affection from her foster parents, her feelings of uncertainty remain. She wonders if she'll ever be going home and then begins to wonder if she really wants to...

What a beautifully written story and I continue to be amazed by Claire Keegan's ability to confine so much emotion and life into short reads time and time again. I love how she leaves an 'unspoken' ending to this story allowing the reader's imagination to take hold and create their own. For me, this writing style encourages a deeper dive into the hidden depth of a story and its characters.

The audiobook narrator Aoife McMahon breathes life into all the characters with her range of voicing. This is the third listen I've had the pleasure to experience Aoife's beautiful Irish accented narration and it's one that shouldn't be missed. In addition, since this is such a short read, I listened to it twice, back-to-back, and happy to report I discovered more details to the story the second time around!

I believe everyone should read or listen to a Claire Keegan book. She is a remarkable storyteller and I have plans to read everything she has written and continues to write. I highly recommend this audiobook. All five stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, HighBridge Audio, and Claire Keegan for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secrets and shame

Adult emotions can be hard to fathom when you’re a young child, especially if the reasons are hidden from you. Some families explicitly have secrets, others claim to have none.

“There are no secrets in this house… Where there’s a secret… there’s shame.”
When adults keep secrets from their children, they usually say, even to themselves, that it’s to protect the children. Often, it’s to hide the parents’ shame.

Sometimes secrets are by omission:
“You don't ever have to say anything… Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing.”

We’re told it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. I’m not sure that’s true of romantic love, let alone any other sort of love. What about mild poverty and neglect: is it better for a child to stay in the familiar family home, with parents and siblings, or to have a taste of something better? When the story stops, everyone has had glimpses of ease and happiness, but I think they are all sadder as a result. Was it worth it?


Image: Illustration of the girl running, by Simon Pemberton, for the original short story in The New Yorker (Source)

Ireland now, back then

This novella is told with the breezy immediacy of the first-person present tense. It’s about a little girl being sent to spend the summer with relatives she’s never met. It’s set in a small town in SE Ireland, probably around the 1980s. The town is real and named; the child is nameless and seems to be about seven or eight. Her mother is pregnant with yet another child they can’t afford, but this girl is the only one sent away. She doesn’t know how long for, or why, though her father jokes about the expense of her appetite. Back-to-front Irish syntax in the dialogue roots it in the Emerald Isle.
“It’s only missing her I’ll be when she is gone.”

Time to care

“This is a different type of house. Here there is room, and time to think. There may even be money to spare.”
The Kinsellas are not wealthy, but they have wondrous things like a washing machine, freezer, vacuum cleaner, and a deep bath filled with hot water. There are chores, but fewer and less pressured than back home; there is time and space to teach her to do things properly. They are kind, gentle, and generous, and there are tender and understated scenes with the Kinsellas separately and together.

Such kindness exposes her divided loyalties: when Kinsella holds her hand, she realises her own father has never done so.
“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.”
The girl realises money doesn’t buy happiness, despite the joyful extravagance of being given a pound to spend in a seaside town. She sees the shadow of sadness in the Kinsellas long before she has any understanding of its cause.


Image: Silhouette of the girl and Mrs Kinsella in a field, from the film. (Source)

Who’s talking?

“I feel at such a loss for words, but this is a new place, and new words are needed.”
The bewilderment, gratitude, and blossoming of the girl is delightfully, plausibly portrayed. But there is an inherent problem: how much is the narrator’s adult hindsight skewing her analysis? For example, when she thinks of her sisters throwing clay against the gable wall, which will turn to mud in the rain, she muses:
“Everything changes into something else, turns into some version of what it was before.”
Her parents are not given to that sort of abstract talk.

Quotes

• “This way men have of not talking: they like to kick a divot out of the grass with a boot heel, to slap the roof of a car before it takes off, to spit, to sit with their legs wide apart, as though they do not care.”

• “In a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”

• “He is given to lying about things that would be nice, if true.”

• “God help you child. If you were mine, I'd never leave you in a house with strangers.”

See also

• This book is an expansion of a much shorter story in The New Yorker. You can read that version HERE.

• After reading, I watched the film. Inevitably, there are a few things you won't know or might not notice if you haven't read the book, but I thought it really good in its own right, and as an adaptation. It’s mostly in Irish, is called An Cailín Ciúin or The Quiet Girl, and has been nominated for Best International Feature Film at next week’s Oscars. It is explicitly set in 1981 with a 10-year old girl and filmed in the sort of muted tones Wes Anderson uses. There are lingering shots of dimly-lit interiors, the landscape, and the farm, with little need for words. Dialogue is sparse, and mostly taken directly from the book. See imdb.

By chance, this was my third consecutive book about children being sent away. It made for interesting comparisons, as the three are very different:

• Being sent to single-sex boarding school aged 11. I wrote about my experience, in lieu of a review of Ysenda Maxtone Graham’s Terms & Conditions, HERE.

• A 16-year old is sent to a mental institution for more than 60 years, for trivial and wrong reasons. It’s fiction that is close to many real cases, and, remarkably, it’s not a depressing book. Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, which I reviewed HERE.

[Rosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: Touching and subtle. Beautiful writing, heartfelt emotions, realistic characters. You’ll want more at the end. But you’ll also realize that you have acquired far more than the 90-odd pages contain.

Story Synopsis:

The unnamed first-person protagonist, a child of unspecified age, has been sent by her parents to live with a foster family on a rural Irish farm while her mother readies herself to give birth to yet another child. She doesn’t know the people she is to stay with, and she doesn’t know when she is to return home. What she doesn’t know is that life is going to bloom for her in this foster home. But all good things come to an end, right? Or don’t they?

I loved the three main characters: the child and the two foster parents. Keegan sketches their personalities in a striking way without going into details. It is only with every subsequent scene that you begin to put a picture of what might be the backstory of the characters.

I’ve read three Claire Keegan works so far, and each time, I’ve read the respective story twice. The first time the regular way, and the second time to see what more clues I might have missed. Her writing is very intelligent, and she also respects her readers’ intelligence by not spoon-feeding them every single detail. Nor does she shove the emotions into your face but causes you to feel them through simple scenes and hidden cues. I do appreciate this trait of hers, though it makes me work that much harder to glean the best of her writing as she leaves a lot unsaid. In this story though, I wish she had revealed at least a few more details. The age of the protagonist, for one. While we can gauge that the child could be anywhere between 6-10 years old, but I like knowing the age of child characters so that I can picture them and their behaviour better.

Names in all their forms have a significant role in the delivery of this novella, which is quite ironic as our narrator remains anonymous throughout the story. She is referred to variously as ‘girl’ or ‘petal’ or any other term, which reveals how the speaker views her. What is also interesting is her own approach to names. Her temporary foster mom, for instance, is always “the woman” in her thoughts while the foster dad is mostly “Kinsella”. There is also a significant moment connected to names at the very end, which is the most poignant moment of the story.

The writing is, as always, poetic without being over the top. Keegan maintains in her scenes the perfect balance between description and conversation, never allowing one to overpower the other. She is also true to the national identity of the characters, and retains the Irish lilt in their lines. The child’s emotions of awe and worry and fear and comfort come out well through the first person rendition. The story is medium-paced, and it would be better if you read it slower to get the exact sense of what’s happening. Keegan’s books are never to be skip-read.

The bittersweet ending left my heart longing for more. Though I know it was the only possible ending for this story, one can still wish that fiction worked better than reality and gave the girl an ending she deserved instead of an ending she was destined to have.

All in all, this isn’t a story that will leave you easily. It isn’t perfect, but it is striking in its writing and memorable in its characters. Definitely worth a read.

4.25 stars.

My thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the DRC of “Foster”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

‘Foster’ was an international bestseller on its release in 2010, and one of The Times’ “Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century.” A variant of this story was published on the New Yorker site. This is the revised and expanded edition.



———————————————
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[Liong · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Goodreads friend, Jennifer, recommended that I must read "Foster" after I finished reading "Small Things Like These"

This simple and short story involves a lot of kindness, touch, and emotion between foster strangers and a child.

I like this beautifully written novel.

[Beata · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant tale of an Irish girl from a poor background who spends a short time with a foster family and through whose eyes we learn about the tragedy that struck the couple some time ago. Her innocence, intelligence and experience already gained despite young age is most moving.
A big thank-you to Claire Keegan, Grove Atlantic, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*

[Ron Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end of last year, I was telling everyone I met about a novella called “Small Things Like These,” by the Irish writer Claire Keegan. It’s about a coal seller who discovers a troubling secret in his village just before Christmas. I don’t have much faith in predictions — the future’s tastes are impossible to fathom — but “Small Things Like These” seems destined to be a classic (rave).

Now comes another little book by Keegan — a short story, really — called “Foster.” The New Yorker published an abridged version in 2010, but this lovely hard-bound edition, with the original text, is a keepsake.

Keegan’s work takes me back to when I first experienced the palpable thrill of entering an author’s world. Her sentences are so artfully honed but so free of artifice they feel as rough and verdant as sprigs of fresh heather.

“Foster” is about a little girl from a poor Irish family. With her mother pregnant, again, and her ne’er-do-well father unable to provide for so many mouths, the girl is handed over to the Kinsellas, a childless couple in another village. The transition is abrupt; her father drops her off without a hug or kiss, or any indication of when he might be back — just a quip: “Try not to fall into the fire, you.”

Although the girl is nervous, her new guardians are tender and kind. She’s awed by the unfamiliar atmosphere of their home. “Here there is room, and time to think,” she says. “There may even be money to spare.”

After she wets the bed on her first night, Mrs. Kinsella brushes her shame aside, cleans up the mess and insists it’s only the mattress weeping. When Mr. Kinsella takes her for a walk, “he takes shorter steps so we can walk in time.” She suddenly realizes: “My father has never once held my hand.”

With the simple incidents of village life, Keegan captures the spirit of a girl being loved and appreciated in a way she’s entirely unaccustomed to. “I feel at such a loss for words,” she says, “but this is a new place, and new words are needed.”

Our perspective is limited to the girl’s impressions, but we can tell that the Kinsellas’ affection is tinged with grief and with the knowledge that this child is theirs only for a short time.

I don’t want to say anything more about “Foster,” except “Read it.”

This review is drawn from The Washington Post's free weekly Book Club newsletter. You can read the rest here:
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw...

[Michael -- Justice for Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire Keegan once again delivers magic.

“Foster” presents an unnamed young girl who finds herself shuffled off to an aunt’s house while her mother is in the final stages of a pregnancy. This girl has been neglected, both by an overworked mother and an insensitive father who– even when he is dropping off the girl– fails to say goodbye or even let her know if she will be coming back.

‘Good luck to ye,’ he says, ‘I hope this girl will give no trouble.’ He turns to me then. ‘Try not to fall into the fire, you.’

Every child craves and deserves attention. The aunt and uncle immediately take to her and she is bewildered by the comfort of a nurturing she has never known. We feel a confidence blooming as the girl comes to understand she fills a need in this house, a need springing from an intimate secret.

“Foster” is an updated version of a short story Claire Keegan published years ago. Like last year’s powerful “Small Things Like These,” we become emotionally attached to characters living in a believable world. She has the remarkable gift of drawing you into her stories and I find myself rereading each a number of times to savor her magic. I strongly recommend sharing this young girl’s life changing journey.

“Kinsella takes my hand in his. As soon as he takes it, I realise 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.”

Thank you Grove Atlantic and NetGalley and Edelweiss for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Foster #NetGalley

***Nominated for an Academy Award, "The Quiet Girl" is based on this story. I cannot wait to see it.

****The film is amazing, the best thing I have seen in a long time.

[Sandysbookaday (taking a step back for a while) · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCERPT: With my mother it is all work: us, the butter making, the dinners, the washing-up and getting up and getting ready for Mass and school, weaning calves and hiring men to plough and harrow the fields, stretching the money and setting the alarm. But this is a different type of house. Here there is room, and time to think. There may even be money to spare.

ABOUT 'FOSTER': 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.

MY THOUGHTS: Claire Keegan writes with a poetic beauty that reminds me of calm waves lapping at the shore. Although the reality of where this young girl has come from, and will be returned to, is harsh and stark, Keegan's writing is anything but.

There is a stunning emotional depth in this novella. Keegan conveys much in very few pages. There are a lot of lessons to be learned here on how to treat a child, and the blossoming of this girl away from a life of overcrowded poverty, just one of many children, in a place where she is recognised and cherished as a person in her own right, is a wonderous experience.

I have been awed by everything I have so far read by this author.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#Foster #NetGalley

I: #clairekeeganfiction @groveatlantic

T: @CKeeganFiction @GroveAtlantic

#fivestarread #historicalfiction #irishfiction #novella #sliceoflife

THE AUTHOR: Claire Keegan was born in County Wicklow, the youngest of a large family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen, and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University. She returned to Ireland in 1992 and lived for a year in Cardiff, Wales, where she undertook an MA in creative writing and taught undergraduates at the University of Wales.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Grove Atlantic via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Foster by Claire Keegan for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
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[Orsodimondo · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE QUIET GIRL


The Quiet Girl

Foster, il titolo originale, indica l’affidamento. Che talvolta è prodromo dell’adozione, o, comunque, di un affido permanente. In questo caso, invece, l’affido è a termine, il tempo di un’estate, il tempo che la mamma porti a termine la gravidanza e partorisca.
Ma è e sarà un’estate indimenticabile per la Quiet Girl, come la definisce il bel film che è stato tratto da questa novella dell’irlandese Claire Keegan.



A rendere l’estate indimenticabile c’è la calda accoglienza degli zii, la sorella della madre e suo marito, che vivono in campagna a nord del paese.
Non hanno figli e per la quiet girl che invece sulle pagine del romanzo è più loquace, meno silenziosa, e viene da una famiglia dove c’è poco tempo per cure e attenzione, magari perché la prole è numerosa (Certo, con tutti quei bambini), magari perché c’è sempre tanto da fare tra casa campi e bestiame, e l’economia domestica è più faticosa e stentata – un esempio illuminante: quando il papà che ha accompagnato in auto la figliola a casa degli zii decide di ripartire – il più presto possibile, come se si annoiasse, o avesse davvero tanto da fare – se ne va senza salutarla, senza dirle che tornerà a prenderla, e si riporta via la piccola valigia della bambina.
In fondo, mamma e papà si sono detti che gli zii se la possono tenere finché vogliono, nessuna fretta di riaverla.



Quando la zia le fa il bagno, la quiet girl pensa che:
Le sue mani sono come quelle di mia mamma ma hanno anche qualcos’altro che non ho mai sentito prima e a cui non so dare un nome.
Gli episodi che avvicinano la bambina ai due adulti si ripetono e susseguono: la quiet girl sembra trovare una nuova famiglia, e quest’ultima perfino più accogliente.
La novella della Keegan non indugia, è rapida e veloce, procede con quel suo tono sommesso e preciso, diretto e semplice.

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

An unnamed little girl discovers the comfort of a warm and loving home and what it feels like to be cared for and cared about. She’s not an orphan as you might suspect when thinking of a foster child. She’s one of number of children in a family struggling to feed and care for their children where love and warmth is as devoid as the food on the table. She’s sent away to stay with relatives for a summer.

She makes a journey that is not just to another house to live, but a journey of the heart to a place she never knew. She finds not just the comfort of the food she’s missed, what a hot bath felt like, but the comfort to her young heart and soul by a simple touch, a kiss on the cheek. An awakening that there was a different life from what she knew.

I many times enjoy stories from the perspective of young children, whose innocence and perceptions never fail to touch my heart. This was no exception. I don’t usually like it when I don’t know the main character’s name because sometimes I feel separated from them. However, that was not the case here. I can’t quite give it five stars because I wanted more in the end . It’s a short novella, but it’s a profound and beautifully sad story. Another by Claire Keegan that made me want to read the rest .

I hope to see the movie The Quiet Girl which is based on this story.

[Carolyn Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can think to say is… wow.

Claire Keegan is a literary genius. She packs endless amounts of heart and life into her work, and I simply can’t get enough.

This story is breathtaking and quiet and heartbreaking and powerful and I feel incredibly lucky to have read it.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella was my introduction to this award winning Irish author. Foster has been adapted to film in a movie called The Quiet Girl which was nominated this year in the Oscars.

I was not as immediately enamoured by the book as many of the other reviewers were. The author writes beautifully but I can never feel really enthralled by a story which is not clear to me. I know I can make up my own ideas but I do not want to. In my mind the author is writing the book and I am merely reading it, not making my own conclusions as to what may have occurred.

In this instance I finished the story and had no idea what had happened. I searched around online and read other people's ideas and thought yes - that may be it - or perhaps it was something else. And I just feel dissatisfied. It was definitely an unhappy ending with no real hope for the future - I managed to infer that much!

I guess I just have to accept it was not my kind of book. Three stars for the beautiful writing and the wonderful feeling of being in Ireland and amongst its people. Weirdly I have to say this was a beautiful book to read despite the fact that I did not understand it.

[Nika · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I have been meaning to read Claire Keegan for a while. Foster turned out to be an excellent starting point. It was evocative, concise, and touching.
I loved the complex simplicity of her writing. In just under 100 pages, Keegan crafts fleshed-out characters and makes the reader empathize with them.

The story takes place in rural Ireland during one hot summer. It is told from the perspective of a child. A young girl has been sent to spend summer vacation with some distant relatives, a childless couple.
The girl proves herself a sensitive narrator and keen observer. Her views of the events and people that surround her are authentic and honest.

Although the narration does not provide many details, we can assume that the girl has received little love and attention at home. Her parents seem to be constantly preoccupied with financial troubles. They are now expecting a new addition to their already big family. This causes them to send one of their children to stay with people she has never met. However, our narrator quickly warms up to her hosts, and the feeling is mutual.

Lovely friendship is born out of kindness and care. The couple not only temporarily looks after the girl, but they demonstrate genuine kindness towards her not by their words but by their actions. The best way of dealing with difficulties is not reprimanding a kid but being amiable, patient, and tactful.
With such an approach, the fear of wetting the bed and breaking things evanesces.
I could feel a growing sense of attachment between the couple and the girl. Does it matter that she is not their biological child? I do not think so.

The summer cannot last forever. The girl knows that she will have to return to her parent's house one day.

To sum up, this is a story about parents and children, about upbringing and the encouragement of development and growth (see one of the meanings of the word "foster"). The final scene was strong and moving.

[Dem · Rating 4 out of 5]

So delighted to see this book made into a movie “ An Cailin Ciuin” (The Quiet Girl) and has now being nominated for an Oscar. Beautiful Book and Movie

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."
image:
This Novella (under 100 pages) tell the story of a a young girl from a struggling farming family in rural Ireland who spends a summer with better off childless relatives on another farm. She's been sent away during the summer to lessen the burden on her strained mother who is pregnant yet again. The girl doesn't know when she will be going home. Her father who drives her there doesn't say when he her will return for her, or even say goodbye properly. The couple, each in their own way show her a love and affection she is unfamiliar with, as she settles in she comes to learn that the couple have their own sorrows.

This is one of those remarkable short books where not a wold is wasted and every sentence is skilfully crafted. On finishing this book I went straight back to page one and read the book all over again as I wanted to read it with a different view this time. I absolutely loved the sense of time and place as you see and smell the Irish countryside, experience the quiet pace of life and the rural communities where your business is everyone's business.

This would make a fantastic bookclub read and I can understand why this is has won so many awards and why it is on the reading list for Leaving Certificate English in Secondary School as so much to discuss in this one.

[elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

ugh i love claire keegan so so much. maybe will be a 5 star soon.

full review to come.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

emma is reading beartown so i am going to read one of her favorites because that's how marriage works.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Sunday Mass in Clonegal, a little girl's father dropped her off at the Kinsellas in rural Wexford farm. The child will be staying with a childless foster family while her mother gets ready to deliver yet another baby. The child came from a large family and through her narration, we learn what she thought is expected of her at the farm, but instead she received all the love and attention that seems foreign to her.

Foster is a tender and poignant story about family and kindness. I also love the vivid description of rural Ireland during summertime. Although this is a short listen, it was beautiful.

Aoife McMahon's narration is wonderful and her beautiful accent is not difficult to understand. There are words that I'm not familiar with and without a print copy, I can't really look them up. Nevertheless, that didn't ruin the story for me but made it more genuine.

I may have to listen to this story again. Claire Keegan's Foster bittersweet ending left me wondering.🤔

Thank you RB Media, HighBridge Audio, and Netgalley for my ALC.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/8/24: Reread for my Fall 2024 Ghosts/Liminal Spaces class. And then wateched the amazing, award-winning The Quiet Girl (2022), based on the book. The film adds some background about the girl's Dad. There are a few spoilers here, but read the book and see the movie, so you can read spoilerish reviews like mine and we can talk!

10/10/23: Reread for my ghosts/liminal spaces fall 23 class; ghosts, you ask? Well, that's a question, isn't it? The incident late in the story at the well? The foster family's recently deceased son (who had drowned in the well) is a kind of ever-present "ghost" in this story, or actual ghost, depending on your point-of-view. I LOVE this book, and showed excerpts from the beautiful and moving 2023 Academy-Award-nominated film based on the story, The Quiet Girl, as well.

One of the things I paid attention to in this second read is the mention of "secrets," which I had not paid as much attention to in my first reading, but other reviews I read later speculate on what is going on with that. In short, there are multiple and hard secrets throughout this story, though some are worth speculating about, since not all of them are clearly identified.

Foster (2010, but republished in 2022, as a wider group of people across the planet, including me, were introduced to her work through the Man Booker Shortlisted Small Things Like These [2021]) is a book about an economically disadvantaged girl from a growing Irish family who is fostered for a summer by a middle-class couple--her mother is a cousin to the host woman--we come to learn later in the story had recently lost their son, to drowning. But in neither the book nor the film is this fact revealed and most importantly, this fact is not revelaed to the girl; we/she have to suffer through wondering why the foster parents act as strangely as they sometimes do around the girl.

A personal reflection: When I was 9 and my sister N was 7 my father drove us to the farm of his childhood friend an hour or so from our house. At the time no one knew when or even if we were going back home. We knew very little about it, but we knew our mother was very sick; I think my parents thought she would die. We were in the same sense as this quiet girl being “fostered” on a farm. A trip to a research hospital (U of Michigan, in Ann Arbor) was lucky, the cause of my mother's pain was identified and corrected and in the early fall we returned home. So this story rsonated with me on that level a bit.

So this is a weird way to talk about this book, maybe, but I’ll admit I was influenced in the reading of it by my son’s photography project about Liminal Spaces, when we (recently) were taking lots of evening walks to photograph together, talking about what is in the space between light and darkness, as in noir art--possibility, magic, sure, but also the unknown, mystery, danger. So since I was in that mindset I thought the whole book was about liminal spaces, in various ways, for this girl who is, after all, growing up, in the liminal space between childhood and adolescence, comparing the state of her family to a family less precarious than her own.

Here’s some examples of what I mean:

“It is a hot day, bright, with patches of shade and greenish, sudden light on the road.”
“In places there is bare, blue sky. In places the blue is chalked over with clouds. . .”
“I picture myself lying in a dark bedroom with other girls, saying things we won’t repeat when the morning comes.” (whispering in the shadows)
“It’s something I am used to, this way men have of not talking. . .”
“There’s a moment when neither one of us knows what to say. . .”
“There’s a moment of dark, in the hallway; when I hesitate, she hesitates with me.”
“I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”
“The presence of a black and white cat. . .”
“. . . the woman’s shadow stretches, almost reaching my chair.”
“. . . everything changes into something else, turns into some version of what it was before.”
“He looks happy but some part of me feels sorry for him.”
“. . . we can see everything and yet we can’t see.”
“. . . the wind blows hard and soft and hard again. . “
“. . . things I don’t fully understand. . .”

In-between-ness!

There’s ominous signs of things to come, fear, worries. There are times in which the story is eerie. The foster parents, having lost their son, are sort of frozen in time in their grief, in between the death and moving on, a kind pof purgatory or bardo. The specter of this tragic event hovers over the girl's time at the farm, climaxing at one key turning point in the story that calls forth Irish myth, in some ways. A moment at the well that as described raises a question about whether the supernatural may be present. And there’s a black dog, the black sea. . . the girl's early on sleeping in the boy's room, wearing his clothes . . . is something beckoning in the well where the boy had drowned?

The ending is so beautiful and complicated Iit brings me to tears every time I read it. That last line! I won't quote it. But I will quote the girl thinking of the ominous present and/or her future in general:

“I keep waiting for something to happen.”

“My heart does not so much feel that it is in my chest as in my hands, and that I am carrying it along swiftly, as though I have become the messenger for what is going on inside of me.”

This is a marvelous short book y’all should read right now!