Foster

This tender story is at once heartbreaking and life-affirming, and though it's a short story, it's lush, full, and packed with life. It begins on a hot summer day in rural Ireland, when an anxious child is taken by her father to live with a distant relative for a time, in order to ease the burden on her mother as she prepares to deliver another child. The story is just under a hundred pages but Keegan takes you on quite the journey: I read this with my heart in my throat, and found it to be a true testament to what a gifted writer can do in a small space.