Name: Foster
ISBN: 9780802160140

Claire Keegan

A small girl is sent to live with foster parents on a farm in rural Ireland, without knowing when she will return home. In the strangers' house, she finds a warmth and affection she has not known before and slowly begins to blossom in their care. And then a secret is revealed and suddenly, she realizes how fragile her idyll is. Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.

Foster

Kat Albanese

I feel at such a loss for words but this is a new place, and new words are needed.

I try to remember another time when I felt like this and am sad because I can't remember a time, and happy, too, because I cannot.

“You don't ever have to say anything,” he says.

“Always remember that as a thing you need never do. Many's the man lost much just because he missed a perfect opportunity to say nothing."

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. It's a hard feeling but as we walk along I begin to settle and let the difference between my life at home and the one I have here be.

Where there's a secret', she says, ‘there's shame – and shame is something we can do without.

Margo Koss

a short and sweet story told through the eyes of a child, about discovering what it truly means to be loved and cared for by people you can call family. i adore Keegan’s writing, there’s so much heart and life in her stories; her storytelling wraps around you like a warm hug.

a deep sadness in my throat after reading this 

abi a

britt

i can’t find the words to describe how this book made me feel and i can’t even really explain what made it so good, but i felt it.

ren corr

“I feel at such a loss for words but this is a new place, and new words are needed.” 

this brilliantly simple story, less than 90 pages long, packs quite an emotional punch. intimate and achingly beautiful. 

“I feel at such a loss for words but this is a new place, and new words are needed.” 

this brilliantly simple story, less than 90 pages long, packs quite an emotional punch. intimate and achingly beautiful. 



Abdullah

Really sweet and heartwarming and beautifully captures children learning different emotions. I will be watching the movie adaptation (The Quiet Girl - 2022) soon and hopefully, it will make me like the story more.

Sweet, wistful - I kept waiting for it to go somewhere much darker and was so relieved it didn't. 