Irish author Claire Keegan is experiencing a surge in popularity, thanks to the selection of her 2021 novella Small Things Like These for the 2022 Booker Prize shortlist. Foster was Keegan's third book, following two short story collections (see "Beyond the Book" for more on Keegan’s career). Although an abridged version of Foster was published in the New Yorker in 2010, this is the first time American readers have had the opportunity to read this miniature masterpiece in full. Coming in at under 130 pages, the novella bears all the hallmarks of a book several times its length: a convincing and original voice, rich character development, an evocative setting, just enough backstory, psychological depth, conflict and sensitive treatment of difficult themes like poverty and neglect.

Keegan’s narrator, a young Irish girl, is never named. One Sunday, in the ...