A lovely little story with a strong sense of place. Keegan does a great job of capturing a child's voice and perspective. A perfect listen for St. Patrick's Day!

I was given a NetGalley widget for this one a year ago and I just got around to reading it and dangit it was so good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have consumed this wildly relevant fictional tale, which felt not at all fictional, more like historical fiction, due to the times. The cover initially was what drew me in, but I'm so thankful to have stuck with it because the outcome was magical. I always love listening to audiobooks and when they sweep me off my feet, I'm just utterly captivated! I always really enjoy multi-cultural thrillers, for I embark on a journey through a land unknown to me, while still getting spooked.

This was a heartbreaking story of impoverished lives in Ireland, made more poignant by hearing it read by Aoife McMahon. I understand a movie has been produced from this story which I might watch if I can bear the sadness of seeing these characters fully fleshed out.
Claire Keegan is a remarkable writer with deep empathy for the Irish soul. This story of the search for family and love is universal, but placing it in this Irish setting gives it a specificity that connects the reader to another time and place.

Per the blurb, "It is 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."

This is a very slim book and an even shorter read, but I think it was my favorite book of 2022. Claire Keegan's prose is spare, elegant and evocative. Aoife McMahon voices the characters and is absolutely captivating. I love all the characters, but particularly the child and the Kinsellas. It's a truly remarkable book and joy to listen to. I got so wrapped up in the book that I got out of my car and continued listening to it at home.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with this audiobook. #Foster #NetGalle

Heart wrenching and heartwarming, this story and moments of happiness and peace this young girl finds with this family is lovely. Though short, the story feels fully formed with beautiful prose. The perspective told through the young girl brings an endearing tilt to this work. Wonderful on audio.

Foster by Claire Keegan is a short story. I listened to the audio version. It was ok. I don’t usually choose short stories but this one intrigued me. It follows a young girl who must go live with her aunt and uncle one summer. The couple love a different life than the one she is used to and she comes to love it there. But, as everything, summer must come to and end. I found the end of the book to be very open-ended, which isn’t my favorite style. All in all though, the narrator did good and it was what it said… a simple short story.

This is the second Claire Keegan novella I have read and I need to say that she writes beautifully, with descriptions that allow me to visualize the setting, the characters and the emotion. This story is set in Clonegal, Ireland where families are struggling to survive. A young girl, unnamed for the reader, is being convinced to get in the car with her father. He is going to take her to live somewhere else for the summer, so the family has one less mouth to feed. She is being fostered by Edna and John, a couple that yearn for a child to love. This story is so emotional. This child is so uncertain of what her future will bring, and is unable to show her emotions. She has love, caring and warmth during that time with her foster parents, and my heart broke for her and John and Edna. Aoife McMahon does an amazing job narrating this emotional, and beautifully written story. I highly recommend it.

I was so excited to read Foster by Claire Keegan because I read Small Things Like These last year and I really enjoyed it! I enjoyed Foster too. This book has similar themes of childcare but it’s told from the point of view of a young girl. The girl is sent to live with foster parents on a rural farm in Ireland. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Aoife McMahon and her voice was a great fit. This is a short book and it’s clear Keegan is skilled with this short form. I’m excited to read more by her in the future!
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Thank you to HighBridge Audio via NetGalley for my ALC!

Gorgeous telling on the classic short story. It was short but sweet! Thanks for the opportunity to listen to this!

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Audio for allowing me to listen to an advanced copy of this wonderful book.
I listened to it once, thought the narrator charming, and listened to it all over again.
This is more of a novella than a novel written by a well-known and loved Irish author, Claire Keegan. Why this is the first time, the book is available in the US is beyond me. It is a story of a child who has to go live with another couple because there are too many people in the family home and not enough of anything. She discovers love and being loved.

Keegan's sentences are spare, she doesn't use any words she doesn't have to. There is a rhythm to the writing as if poetry were involved. The reader, at least me, gets pulled in immediately. Though it is in the third person, it is easy to step into a number of the characters' shoes.
I want to say that this book is so Irish but couldn't tell you what I mean. Something about poverty; the make the best you can of a situation; that unpleasant things happen and you move on. And through it all, love blossoms.

This book is a winner on so many levels.

This was an excellent short story with true feelings. There are many emotions throughout the short story.

I adored this beautiful piece if Iroah writing. The narrator made each strong character come to life as a summer on a farm enfold. A gorgeously written piece of prose not to be missed.

Foster
By Claire Keagan

Narrator: Aoife McMahon
Length: 1 hour 26 minutes


From the author of the Booker Prize nominee Small Things Like These, comes a novella about the transformative power of kindness and love. On a Sunday afternoon, a young girl is driven out into the country. She is to be left with farming relatives who have agreed to keep her for a time. The child’s mother is expecting yet another baby. She neither knows what to expect nor when she might return to her family. Foster is told in first person and we witness the interior life of this poor tinker’s daughter who is shown warmth and attention, the likes she has never known. One grows fond of this waif as she blossoms under the ordinary ministrations offered by the Kensellas. We easily come to care for the couple as well, who have their own secret wounds to bare.

Foster is quite short, but so much is conveyed in an economy of words. The strength of the story is in its subtlety. For one, the girl is never named, as if she is rather interchangeable with any other child. The reader is informed as much by what is said as by what is inferred. It is a gentle tale that begs to be read more than once and I gladly listened to it multiple times. Aoife McMahon’s narration perfectly captures the subtleties of the tale and the full range of emotions of the young, lonely, and hopeful child.

My thanks to @NetGalley and @highbridgeaudio for this gifted audiobook.

Tender and poignant Foster, a gem of a novella bye Claire Keegan, is a must read.

The vivid descriptions of rural Ireland and the tender story about true kindness and one little girl's summer experience when she goes to live with neighbors, is pure joy.

Short and sweet I highly recommend this novella and thank netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review,.

Set in Ireland in 1981, a family is going through tough times and sends their oldest daughter to be fostered by another family during one summer. There, she experiences a whole new world and thrives under the love and affection poured over her. This was a well written and very moving novella.
*** huge thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review

This was an excellent novella and very well narrated! It follows a young Irish girl who is sent to stay with a loving man and wife (who lost their son) during the summer. Her own family is struggling to feed and care for all the kids as her mother prepares to give birth to their latest sibling. The connection between the couple and the young girl is so sweet and pure, and I wished she could stay with them forever.

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.🤔

3.5 stars

A short story told from the perspective of a young child, sent to stay with a couple she’s never met before. Beautifully & subtly written, full of emotion right under the surface.

[What I liked:]

•Keegan does a great job embodying the perspective of a young child. We, the readers, catch snatches of adult conversations, puzzle at adult reactions, & try to piece together what little info we are explicitly told. Most of the understanding comes through context clues.

•The characters are very believable. Even though this is set in (mid 20th C?) Ireland, the people & their interactions in their small town are very familiar.

•I definitely *felt* that hug that the MC gives her foster father at the end. The ending is so moving.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•Too bad this wasn’t longer, because it was good!

CW: child neglect, child death

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

"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.

This is the type of story you need to let simmer.

Claire Keegan’s Foster is a quick novella that I actually listened to on audio twice. When I finished it the first time, I immediately started it again, hoping it would impact me more the second time around.

The story did evoke emotion, as well as memories of how it felt to receive the type of attention I did not receive at home. I understood the longing of the narrator, and how bittersweet the kindness she received from the Kinsellas was.

Foster lets us look at different types of grief, as well as how full life can feel when a certain emptiness is temporarily filled. Knowing it cannot last keeps the grief on the surface.

However, there is only so much one can do with so few pages. A little more meat to the story may have given me all that I was craving, but I came out feeling that it lacked something vital. I liked it, and I continued to think about it after finishing, but it wasn’t as powerful as it could have been.

I am immensely grateful to Highbridge Audio and NetGalley for my audio review copy. All opinions are my own.