Another short delightful read from Keegan. Foster is really a short story or novella rather than a novel. Set in rural Ireland and told in the first person, the child (never named) is taken to spend the summer with a distant aunt and uncle who have no children of their own (their only son died years earlier). Life on the farm is idyllic for the girl, with hard and satisfying work, care and attention from the adults, and a sense of belonging both unfamiliar and fleeting. While she hopes to stay, she knows that return to her own family is inevitable, and that sense of an ending lingers in her every day. When that time eventually comes, the return is devastating, feeling like a prisoner being returned to their cell after some time on the outside, knowing fully what they can no longer have. The final scene is heart wrenching.
The child learns important life lessons from her brief fostering, including this:
You don’t ever have to say anything…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.
Keegan is masterful with language, characters, and place, and in telling deep, evocative stories in short form. I look forward to reading more of her.
Fate: I think I’ll be starting a collection of these lovely little books.
8 – female author
9 – made into a film
13 – somewhere I’ve never been
18 – short story
20 – one word title
34 – prize winner
rclr 