I read Claire Keegan’s book Small Things Like These (2021) back in July of this year because it was on the Booker International List.  I wondered how a novella could be on that list, but then I read it and I wondered no more.  I rated it a 10.  🙂  My review is here –

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Foster
by Claire Keegan
2023 / (62 pages)
read by Adolfe McMahon 2h 9m
Rating 10 / literary novella (Ireland)
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So when Keegan’s new book, Foster, was mentioned somewhere – ??? –  I checked and found it at the library.  (Yay!) 

 After church one Sunday morning our nameless narrator, a young girl about age 6 or 7, is taken by her father to the home of the Kinsellas where she will be fostered for awhile. The term is open. A few days later a neighbor comes about a wake being held for a local man.  This is harvest season so sometimes this happens.  

At the wake our poor girl is invited to the home of another congregant “to help some poor soul,” doncha know, but the real reason is so that the new woman can quiz her about the goings on at Mrs Kinsella’s  home.

 “Is she given money?” “Does she drink at night?” “Are they playing cards much?” “Butter or margarine?”
“Does she skimp?” “Are the child’s clothes still hanging there?” There’s a bit of growing up to do here.  

Foster had nowhere near the impact on me Things Like These had, but that was on the Booker Prize short list last year. At 114 pages it’s the shortest Booker winner ever. She’s written 4 books and I’ve read 2 of them – I look forward to more from Keegan.