From the Booker-shortlisted author of Small Things Like These

The evening is fine. In the sky a few early stars are shining of their own accord. She watches the dog licking the bowl clean. This dog will break her daughter’s heart, she’s sure of it.

Book blurb

Claire Keegan’s mesmeric story takes us into the heart of the Wicklow countryside, and of the farming family of Victor Deegan, with his ‘three teenagers, the milking and the mortgage’.

When Deegan finds a gun dog and gives it as a present to his only daughter, his wife is filled with foreboding at this seeming act of kindness. As the seasons pass, long-buried family secrets threaten to emerge.

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.

Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

My thoughts

I enjoyed this short read it’s another well observed story from Claire Keegan who is fast becoming a favourite Irish writer. I can’t say that the characters are particularly loveable but they are well drawn and this slice of Irish rural life is a great read. When Victor brings a stray dog home and says it’s a present for his only daughters birthday his wife knows there will be trouble. Victor doesn’t give gifts, doesn’t really seem to care for his family. His life is hard. His wife is unhappy, her life is not what she wants or, indeed, nor does she seem suited to it. She has a reputation as a storyteller and their guests enjoy these tales. As the story unfolds we learn that both the adults are frustrated with their lot but it is his wife that will take revenge for Victors mistake, the last straw, over the dog.

With terrific characters, a great sense of place and enabling the reader to empathise with the characters and their plight even if you can’t necessarily love them. Claire Keegan’s The Forester’s Daughter is a wonderful story, her words are well chosen to convey a story that says all that is needed in just the right amount of words.

I just love how the shorter forms at their best are packed full to the brim and are like reading a novel, you don’t feel ‘shortchanged’ indeed it’s just as satisfying. Claire Keegan is a shorter form powerhouse of a writer. I recommend this book to all who enjoy reading. I will continue to seek out and read her stories.

Information

Published: Faber & Faber (7 March 2019) | 54 pages | ISBN9780571351855

Buy: Faber (Publisher) | AmazonSmileUK | Your local library | Your local bookshop | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Hive

Author: Claire Keegan was born in 1968 and grew up on a farm in Wicklow. Her first collection of short stories, Antarctica, was completed in 1998. It announced her as an exceptionally gifted and versatile writer of contemporary fiction and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short story collection, Walk the Blue Fields, was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Claire Keegan lives in County Wexford, Ireland.

Claire Keegan | Claire Keegan website

Books

Her stories are translated into 30 languages and have won numerous accolades. 

Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. \ Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize, awarded to the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. | Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award and was last year chosen by The Times as one of the top 50 works of fiction to be published in the 21st century. | Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize. It won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2022. | So Late in the Day: Sunday Times bestseller 2023.