Claire Keegan captures rural Ireland in a nutshell. always a sad undertone but very atmospheric, can almost picture it on screen.

This really didn't do anything for me.

A young girl is taken by her dad to live with people she doesn't know, though they are relatives who know of her. The father leaves, absentmindedly taking her clothes with him, but he seems happy to be on his way without a goodbye hug or anything resembling caring.

She's well treated and then is brought home to her family after the new baby is born.

Huh? We are not told why she's being brought there or why she's returned when she is. We know the mother sounds constantly pregnant and the father lost a farm animal in a bet at the pub, that money is very tight and attention is likely not paid to the older children as far as being clean and fed.

Did I miss the whole point of this book? I saw no reason for this to be written and was glad it was very short. Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this book! I would honestly say I wished it was longer. I felt like there was so much depth to the characters I wanted to know more. I really got a feel for rural Ireland I hadn't before from other Irish stories by other authors. Is this part of a larger collection? It really had that feel. I look forward to reading more of her work.

“Eventualities. A good woman can look far down the line and smell what is coming before a man even gets a sniff of it.”

Foster by Claire Keegan is a novella (less than 100 pages) set in 1981 Ireland where an unnamed little girl is sent to stay with an older couple for the summer while her mother is waiting to give birth to an already overcrowded household. During her time with them, the little girl blossoms and learns how it feels to be at the center of someone's love and affection. The language itself is simple but Claire Keegan has a way to draw the reader in and write with such emotion that this little story will stay with you for a long time.

Warning: The end scene will have you tearing up!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I fell in love with Keegan’s writing after reading Small Things Like These earlier this year. Foster is an older story that just got republished, so hopefully it reaches a wider audience. another beautiful Irish story, this time centering around a girl who abruptly gets taken to live with relatives. as her pregnant mother is unable to keep up with her children.

Kindness, hopefulness and love. Those are the themes which slowly unfold in this short but substantial book. I didn't realize it was under 100 pages until I started reading, suddenly realizing I was halfway through. In spite of the length, this narrative is loaded with emotion and exceptional character development.

The setting is Wexford in rural Ireland. A young girl is driven by her father to a stranger's home to left as a foster. Her mother will soon be giving birth and for financial and time reasons, the girl is be fostered for an indeterminate amount of time. As it turns out, the strangers are family and treat her very well.

Coming from a very poor family with many siblings, arriving dirty, underfed and lacking basic social graces the girl will slowly blossom in her foster home. For the first time she feels valued. The man and woman talk to her and engage her, teach her to read and show her love.

The ending was bittersweet and I wanted more. Sometimes it's best to linger on the "what ifs." I'd highly recommend immersing yourself in this poignant story. This is my first experience with this author and most certainly will not be my last.

Publication date is November 1, 2022 by Grove Atlantic Press. Genre: General Fiction Adult,

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book. I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

The beautifully written classic from Claire Keegan, Foster is just as haunting now as it was when first released.

(Reviewed for BookBrowse) Excerpt: Claire Keegan’s delicate, heart-rending novella tells the story of a deprived young Irish girl sent to live with rural relatives for one pivotal summer. Although Foster feels like a timeless fable, a brief mention of IRA hunger strikers dates it to 1981. It bears all the hallmarks of a book several times its length: a convincing and original voice, rich character development, an evocative setting, just enough backstory, psychological depth, conflict and sensitive treatment of difficult themes like poverty and neglect. I finished the one-sitting read in a flood of tears, hoping the Kinsellas’ care might be enough to protect the girl from the harshness she may face in the rest of her growing-up years. Keegan unfolds a cautionary tale of endangered childhood, also hinting at the enduring difference a little compassion can make.

Such a beautiful book, tender, insightful and sad. It tells the story of a little girl from a poor Irish family who is handed over to an older childless couple when her mother becomes pregnant yet again and her feckless father is unable to provide for his large and growing family. The father abruptly drops her off with no explanation or any indication when she might be able to come home again. Her new carers turn out to be loving and kind and for the first time the girl feels cared for and appreciated in a way she has never experienced before. We see it all through her eyes but the perceptive reader can read between the lines and realise that the Kinsellas’ affection is tinged with grief from the knowledge that this is only a temporary arrangement. At the end of the summer the child must return home. The writing is spare and understated, saying much in a very few expertly chosen words, excellently paced and quite unforgettable. A small gem.

Foster is a quintessential Claire Keegan story, a novella that tells of a young Irish girl who spends several summer weeks with grandparents she doesn’t really know, on their farm, as her mother awaits the birth of another baby. This tale of discovery, of emotional opening, is told with Keegan’s usual evocative prose. I found it so satisfying…and, of course I want more.

Highly recommended to anyone and everyone.

This novella was originally published in the United Kingdom in 2010 and is now being released in a revised edition by Grove Atlantic.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you to @groveatlantic for an eARC of this through NetGalley! Through the Booker Prize, I was introduced to Irish writer Claire Keegan, shortlisted for her novel, Small Things Like These. When I saw that she had a new book (to the United States) coming out this month, I had to pick it up and give it a read!

This is a short novella that is 92 pages long. I think Keegan writes a sweet story with the space that she uses. I would not have minded if she had fleshed this book out by making it a bit longer. I think that would have made a greater emotional impact for me. I think this book still works but the brevity slightly works against it in this case, at least in my opinion.

This story is told from the perspective of an unnamed young Irish girl. Over the summer, she is sent away by her family to live with distant relatives. While the details aren’t fleshed out fully, you get the impression that she has a fairly cold relationship with her family and over the summer, she begins to experience a more warm and loving relationship with the family that she is with, named the Kinsellas.

I don’t want to say a lot more because the story is very short and I don’t want to spoil anything. I think there are some heartbreaking moments and some sweet ones. Overall, I really liked this but would have loved it to be a little bit longer and flesh out a few parts a bit more! If you’ve read this, let me know your thoughts or let me know if it’s on your TBR!

In 1980s Ireland, a father drops off his child at a couple’s farm where she will stay over the summer. The father’s wife is pregnant yet again, and sending his eldest away will temporarily relieve their burdens. The unnamed narrator of Claire Keegan’s novella, Foster, is young enough to be treated as a child but old enough to be perceptive about the world around her. She is nervous when she arrives at the childless Kinsella’s home, but is soon welcomed by the husband and wife who treat her as if she is their own. Over the course of the summer the child learns how milk the cow, runs as fast as she can to get the mail, and follows around the wife like a shadow. Part way through the summer a nosy neighbor explains to her that the Kinsellas had a young boy who drowned, allowing readers to understand the role that the child plays for the couple.

While the book is extremely short - only 95 pages - I loved every second of it. Like her previous novella, Small Things Like These, Keegan is able to craft a fully realized world using limited words. Although I kept waiting for something dramatic to happen, this is not that type of story. Instead, I finished the book with a dual feeling of warmth and sadness. There’s something extremely satisfying about being able to finish a book in one or two sittings, and this is made even more true when the writing is as clear and purposeful as Keegan’s.

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

Short and poignant and absolutely heartwrenching. Can't believe it took me this long to read this one, but so grateful I did.

Foster is a slim novel at less than 100 pages but once again Keegan manages to tell an emotionally charged story using just a scattering of words.

A small girl is sent to live with distant relatives on a rural farm in Ireland for the summer. During her time there she experiences affection for the first time and what develops is a beautiful relationship between her and her foster parents who equally are healing from their own painful past.

It had astonishing depth for such a short book, full of sadness but also compassion. Written in an eerie almost hazy like prose that despite reading in Wembley surrounded by over 86,000 people I was completely transported to a farm in 1980’s Ireland.

I adored this book, even more than Small Things Like These, it was simple and uncomplicated in its structure but really just a pleasure to read cementing Keegan as an author I want to read all and anything she puts on the page.

Thank you to @netgalley and @groveatlantic for the opportunity to read this incredible book ❤️

Foster is a quick read about a girl in Ireland who during a hot summer is loaned or placed with a foster family who lives in the countryside while the girl's mother is preparing to have another baby into a family that is already crowded and not much extra. The Kinsella family may just be a blessing for the girl as she finds an environment that has plenty of food and room to grow and maybe just a little bit of love. Eventually the girl may find out why from a nosey neighbor.

Novella about a young girl from a poor family sent to live with a childless couple. Sadly, I just didn't get the point of the story--maybe it was too deep for me to understand.

I love Claire Keegan. Her books are perfectly quiet, quietly perfect. And in such few pages. The reader immediately feels a kinship with the protagonist and the trauma, neglect, she has experienced at home. She finds her safe place at the Kinsellas'.

I read Keegan’s novella Small Things Like These and thought it a very worthwhile read so I was very happy to see this offering on NetGalley. It was the winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize.

This very short novella finds a young girl sent to live with a relative in rural Ireland while her mother gives birth to yet another child. Her family is poor and she has not received a lot of care or attention.Nervous about this new living situation and not knowing what to expect or when she can return home, she finds nurturing, caring adults taking care of her. She learns a secret about this couple that explains some things. When she has to return to her family,

This is a sweet, yet heartbreaking story. Beautifully written, you will find yourself warming to this waif of a child and the couple who foster her. Keegan paints a vivid picture of rural farming as well as the nearby coast. The affecting, bittersweet ending will stay with you for a while.

Claire Keegan's fiction is a force of nature--astonishingly insightful and haunting. This slender novel is winning accolades from readers everywhere--and with good reason. Brilliantly crafted, devastatingly narrated, it's great to have FOSTER in print here--Keegan is a master at spinning compelling, fiercely original stories.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and to Netgalley for the pleasure of an early read.