"An international bestseller and one of The Times's "Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century," Claire Keegan's piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love, now released as a standalone book for the firsttime ever in the US. It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not knownand slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household-where everything is so well tended to-and this summer must soon come to an end. Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award and published in an abridged version in the New Yorker, this internationally bestselling contemporary classic is now available for the first time in the US in a full, standalone edition. A story of astonishing emotional depth, Foster showcases Claire Keegan's great talent and secures her reputation as one of our most important storytellers"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

An Irish child taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm finds the love and affection she never knew before and begins to thrive in the internationally best-selling novel now available as a standalone book. - (Baker & Taylor)

An international bestseller and one of The Times’ “Top 50 Novels Published in the 21st Century,” Claire Keegan’s piercing contemporary classic Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household—where everything is so well tended to—and this summer must soon come to an end.

Winner of the prestigious Davy Byrnes Award and published in an abridged version in the New Yorker, this internationally bestselling contemporary classic is now available for the first time in the US in a full, standalone edition. A story of astonishing emotional depth, Foster showcases Claire Keegan’s great talent and secures her reputation as one of our most important storytellers.

Claire Keegan was raised on a farm in Ireland. Her stories have won numerous awards and are translated into thirty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award then the world’s richest prize for a story. These works have been published in the New Yorker, Paris Review, Granta, and Best American Stories. Small Things Like These was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the finest book in any genre published in the English language. Foster is now part of the school syllabus in Ireland. This is the first publication of the original text in the USA. 

Booklist Reviews

*Starred Review* A young girl is sent to live temporarily with distant relatives while her mother awaits the birth of yet another child. Dropped unceremoniously by her father at the Kinsellas' farmhouse, the girl takes it all in—the gruff barking of a dog, the weeping trees, the shiny windows. It's a far different home than the one she's left. "Here there is room to think." And think our unnamed narrator does, of the way Edna's touch is gentler than her mother's, of the reserved affection John bestows, of the unspoken sadness that pervades their every action and kindness. With a child's open curiosity and inherent acuity, the girl pieces together the Kinsellas' history from the merest glance and through the pointed questions of the villagers. Acclaimed Irish writer Keegan, author most recently of the Booker Prize–longlisted Small Things Like That (2021), wrote this as a short story that appeared in 2010 in the New Yorker. She has expanded it, and the resulting novella is now available in the U.S. In a quiet way, line by line, Keegan invites the reader to pay attention, for the wonder is in the details, in which nothing occurs, but everything happens. A gem of a book, to be savored again and again. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.

Library Journal Reviews

Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize and considered a classic in Ireland, Keegan's novella features a young girl who finds fleeting happiness when she's sent to live with foster parents in rural Ireland. It appeared here in an earlier version in The New Yorker and is expected to garner attention following the success of Keegan's multi-best-booked Small Things Like These.