Promotional Information

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan is the long awaited second collection from the Booker-shortlisted author of Small Things Like These.

About the Author

Claire Keegan grew up in rural Wicklow and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University, New Orleans. Her highly acclaimed debut, Antarctica, was published in the UK and US in 1999.

Reviews

Acclaimed Irish author Keegan, whose Antarctica won a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year award, returns with a new collection. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Seven foreboding tales from Keegan (Antarctica) examine family, buried secrets and forbidden love in contemporary rural Ireland. In the title story, a priest questions his calling as he performs the wedding ceremony of a girl he once loved; after marrying her off to a lesser man, laments that "two people hardly ever want the same thing at any given point in life." "The Forester's Daughter" follows a tragic chain of events prompted by a woman who agrees to marry against her better instincts "because if she said no, the question might never be asked of her again." The final and strongest story centers on Margaret Flusk, a superstitious woman retreating from a personal tragedy into the farmhouse of her recently deceased cousin, who was a priest, and with whom she shared an abiding love. Word of her mysterious ability to heal soon gets out to the parish, breaking her isolation decisively. The more whimsical narratives fall a little flat (they're also brief), but in the longer, stronger pieces, Keegan's poetic prose, spot-on dialogue and well paced plot twists keep the pages turning through sadness, grief, rage and compromise. (July) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.