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** A SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER **
** Chosen as a Spectator, Irish Times and Irish Independent Book of the Year **
THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FOSTER, ANTARCTICA AND WALK THE BLUE FIELDS
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION AND THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE AND THE IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE DALKEY LITERARY AWARDS
'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.' Hilary Mantel (Winner of the Booker Prize 2009 and 2012)
'This is a tale of courage and compassion, of good sons and vulnerable young mothers. Absolutely beautiful.' Douglas Stuart (Winner of the Booker Prize 2020)
'Marvellous-exact and icy and loving all at once.' Sarah Moss
'A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.' Sinéad Gleeson
** A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK**
**CHOSEN AS A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME**
It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.
The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.
'Astonishing. Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter.' Colm Tóibín
'A true gift of a book. a sublime Chekhovian shock.' Andrew O'Hagan
'A moral tale that is unsentimental and deeply affecting, because true and right.' David Hayden
About the author
Claire Keegan's works of fiction are critically acclaimed international bestsellers - and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. 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 - the world's richest prize for a short story. Small Things Like These, a New York Times Best Book of the 21st Century, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize and won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award. So Late in the Day was published in the New Yorker and shortlisted for the British Book Awards. Keegan was awarded Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland in 2022, Author of the Year 2023, the Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters 2024 and most recently the Siegfried Lenz Prize.
Summary
** A SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER **** Chosen as a Spectator, Irish Times and Irish Independent Book of the Year **FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FOSTER, SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE IS AN UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF HOPE, QUIET HEROISM, AND TENDERNESS.
Foreword
An exquisite winter tale of courage, and its cost -- set in Catholic Ireland.
Report
A story of quiet bravery, set in an Irish community in denial of its central secret. Beautiful, clear, economic writing and an elegant structure dense with moral themes. Booker Judges, 2022
