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Where to Start Reading Claire Keegan
“The worst was yet to come, he knew. Already he could feel a world of trouble waiting for him behind the next door, but the worst that could have happened was also already behind him; the thing not done, which could have been — which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life. Whatever suffering he was now to meet was a long way from what the girl at his side had already endured and might yet surpass.”
This passage from Small Things Like These is a shining example of the kind of sharp, incisive writing that Claire Keegan harnesses as her greatest skill. Raised on a farm in County Wicklow, Ireland, Keegan has written about fallible humanity, love, loss, and heartbreak throughout her incredible career while staying true to her Irish roots. If you’re looking for the perfect set of giftable books for the literature lovers in your life, Claire Keegan is the best place to start.
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This is the tale of an ordinary man and his extraordinary story. When a coal merchant stumbles upon his town’s hidden secrets and lies, he must decide what to do next. A story about empathy, history and heroism, this is one of Keegan’s best — and has been adapted for the big screen starring Academy Award-winner Cillian Murphy. Fun fact: this is the shortest book to ever be nominated for the Booker Prize.
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A young girl’s father unceremoniously drops her off to temporarily live with relatives during a scalding 1980s Irish summer, and her life is forever changed. Told through sharp, stunning and sparse language, Foster is a story of childhood, coming-of-age, family and heartbreak. You’ll read this in one sitting — and make sure to have Kleenex at the ready.
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A triptych of three stories centered on men, women and the vast divide between them, from all stages of Claire Keegan’s career. Keegan introduces us to a man lamenting a relationship gone wrong, a writer being pestered by a man on her retreat, and a woman risking everything on a love affair with an obsessive man. This is as compelling as short fiction gets.
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After her debut collection was met with resounding success, the world waited with bated breath for Keegan’s next project, and she certainly delivered. The collection that first introduces us to “The Long and Painful Death” that Keegan expands upon in So Late in the Day, these are the kinds of stories that won’t take long to read but will stick with you long after the last page.
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This is the collection that started it all, now with a brand-new (perfectly giftable) package. From its title story — which we revisit in Small Things Like These — that takes us along on a married woman’s tumultuous affair, to “Men and Women” where a farmwife stands up to her brutish husband, to other tales of human flaws and foibles. These stories from the strange to the gothic and disquieting won Keegan the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and kicked off her remarkable career.