I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Small Things Like These since I read it a year ago, and Claire Keegan has done it again with Foster, a short but extremely emotional, powerful story about a little girl who goes to stay with a relative of her mother’s over the summer.

Keegan’s stories are not big, in that no heroic changes happen in the grand scheme of things. But they are great exactly because they’re small and personal: their impact feels real, and more to the core.

As always, Keegan’s pen flows, and her brand of realism makes her work read like classics. Foster also has some exquisite symbolism.

It’s impossible to read Foster, and not finish it in tears, not fall in love with it.

Thank you a million times to Grove Atlantic for giving me access to the DRC on NetGalley!

 Foster is another fabulous novella by Claire Keegan. It’s about a young girl from a large and not well-off family who is sent to spend the summer with relatives while her mother has a new baby. It was exquisite, written in an understated way. Keegan is a master at showing not telling and the story includes lots of closely observed small moments. And she doesn’t even show all the story. So much occurs off page and between words, yet the reader is always fully aware and never left wondering. Such brilliant storytelling. This story is tender, poignant and beautiful, with an ending that nearly broke me. Loved it. 

It's easy to think that when a book is this small (96 pages) that it's unlikely to have much of an impact but Foster is the most exquisitely beautiful, small bundle of perfection that worms it's way into your core before you have even realised it's finished. 

This short but perfectly formed story, set in rural Wexford in the 1980s, follows an unnamed little girl as she is sent off to live with distant relatives while her mother gets ready to give birth to yet another child. As the story moves on we see her realise there's a whole world of care, love, affection and comfort that she didn't even realise she was missing.

It's quite striking how much Keegan says within these pages while actually saying very little at all. It's quite a hard book to write about as it's one that evokes so many feelings from each individuals own interpretations. For example, for me, leaving the little girl unnamed I feel added so much to the sense of her apparent insignificance at the start.

A gentle yet powerful book overflowing with life's pain yet also it's beauty. Not a single word is wasted and every sentence is so meaningfully crafted and delivered straight to the heart.

Compelling novella containing a beautiful web of nature description and characters that manage to capture you in such a short time

I read this in one day. What a lovely little story about a young girl taken in by relatives for the summer in Ireland. It was beautifully written, I could feel the characters’ sadness Without it being explicitly stated. The descriptions of the countryside were so vivid, I felt like I was there. I have already checked out another book by Claire Keegan, I love her writing! 

"Lo que se cuenta es tan importante como lo que no se cuenta" - Claire Keegan

Foster, o Tres Luces en su traducción al castellano, es uno de esos libros en los que a primera vista pareciera que nada importante ocurre. Pero, si uno presta atención, puede advertir las sutilezas y los momentos conmovedores que se esconden en esta novela corta de la autora irlandesa Claire Keegan.

Ante la inminente llegada de un bebé a una familia numerosa y humilde, una niña es enviada por sus padres a pasar el verano en la granja de un matrimonio, Joe y Edna Kinsella. Allí, la niña siente por primera vez el afecto y la atención que no recibe en su hogar, convirtiendo a la estadía en una que probablemente jamás olvidará.

El relato está narrado en primera persona por aquella niña sin nombre, por lo que accedemos constantemente a sus pensamientos más profundos e íntimos; "sus manos son como las de mi madre, pero tienen algo más, algo que nunca he sentido antes y para lo que no tengo nombre", piensa mientras la señora Kinsella la baña y le limpia la mugre con cariño. A través de la mirada perceptiva de la pequeña narradora, vamos conociendo mejor a los Kinsella y descubrimos junto a ella un secreto doloroso que dejará una fuerte impresión.

A pesar de que Keegan es económica con el uso de sus palabras y no las gasta en descripciones elaboradas, nos transporta inmediatamente a los campos verdes de Irlanda, a la hermosa naturaleza de la granja, del mar, de los cielos nocturnos en los que la luna basta para iluminar el camino. A medida que iba leyendo, me imaginaba todo como si fuera una película, tal vez dirigida por Ken Loach, con esa sensibilidad que lo caracteriza para los paisajes rurales y la gente de clase trabajadora. El mundo de la novela es uno que se siente completamente real, uno en el que las mujeres siguen teniendo hijos aunque no lo deseen ("Aunque sé que no quiere ninguno, me pregunto si esta vez mi madre tendrá una niña o un niño."), en el que no todos saben cómo ser buenos padres, en el que a veces no hay plata ni comida, y en el que no siempre existen los finales felices.

En fin, Tres Luces es una novela dulce y triste en partes iguales, que con menos de 100 páginas y sin golpes bajos logra conmover infinitamente. Después de esta primera experiencia tan linda con la obra de Claire Keegan, definitivamente leeré sus dos colecciones de cuentos. Su estilo es austero, conciso y de aparente sencillez, pero bello a su manera.