Sometimes, you just need a beautifully written novella to pull you out of a reading slump and Foster by Irish author Claire Keegan is exactly that. I read Foster from cover to cover over a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning and, to be honest, it felt nice to just finish a book after starting, but not finishing, about four other books this year. Not to devalue the experience of reading Foster, it was beautiful.
The power of a novella
I had previously read and loved Small Things Like These (now made into a film starring Cillian Murphy) and reading that, I was instantly captivated and swept into the world of the book. The same thing happened with Foster. In less than 100 pages, so many ideas and layers to characters are revealed. Themes of belonging, displacement, grief and how just the smallest kindness can mean so much.
‘Where there’s a secret,’ she says, ‘there’s shame – and shame is something we can do without.’
Set in rural Wexford, Ireland, during a hot, oppressive summer, the story starts when a young girl is temporarily given, by her parents, to a neighbouring couple to look after, while her mother gives birth to another of her younger siblings. She has no say in this, just does what she’s told. While the girl is starved of affection, the implication is that she is not unloved by her parents, so what Foster does so well is explore this complex mix of emotions, from all sides.
I was unsure what decade this story is set in, which made it an even more enticing as that sense of displacement is key overall. I was throughly sucked in, Foster is concise, emotional storytelling, I loved it.
- Get your copy of Foster here;
- Published by Faber 2010;
- 90 pages;
- My rating:
Books on the 7:47 