Author(s): Claire Keegan

Novel | Ireland

'This is a tale of courage and compassion, of good sons and vulnerable young mothers. Absolutely beautiful.' - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain (Winner of the Booker Prize 2020)It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.'[Claire Keegan] creates luminous effects with spare material, so every line seems to be a lesson in the perfect deployment of both style and emotion.' - Hilary Mantel

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION 2022

"The focus of this novella is close, precise and unwavering: a beautifully written evocation of Ireland in the 1980s, precisely rendered; of a good man and his ordinary life; and of the decision he makes that unlocks major, present questions about social care, women’s lives and collective morality. The very tightness of focus, and Keegan’s marvellous control of her instrument as a writer, makes for a story at once intensely particular and powerfully resonant." (the judges)

 'Astonishing. Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter.' Colm Toibin
'A true gift of a book. a sublime Chekhovian shock.' Andrew O'Hagan
 'A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.' - Sinead Gleeson
'A moral tale that is unsentimental and deeply affecting, because true and right.' - David Hayden

Author Biography: Claire Keegan was brought up on a farm in Ireland. Her stories have won numerous awards and are translated into more than 20 languages. Foster was named by The Times as one of the top 50 novels to be published in the 21st Century. Keegan is now holding the Briena Staunton Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge.