Foster

When asked about his favorite writers at a talk I attended recently, Andre Dubus III, who wrote The House of Sand and Fog (which I loved) and (the more recent) Kindness, mentioned Irish author Claire Keegan, known for her emotionally penetrating short stories and novellas. Such high praise from Dubus led me to download Foster since Small Things Like These was unavailable. 

Sparse writing that is nonetheless saturated with a profound depth of sentiment and insight, is the hallmark of Keegan’s writing style. The portrayal of a family struggling financially forced to surrender one of their children to live with relatives is powerful and moving subject matter. I empathized with the child who describes her circumstance this way, “I am in a spot where I can neither be what I always am nor turn into what I could be.”

Edit 1/11/26: I just watched a sweet movie on Hulu called The Quiet Girl, based on this book. The film captures all the atmosphere and tension of the book, and the visuals provide even more context to the complex relationships between the characters. Closely following the plot of the book, the tender story’s poignant ending fills the viewer with empathy and melancholy.