Foster

By Claire Keegan

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A girl is taken by her father to live with the Kinsellas on a farm in Wexford. That same evening he drives off leaving her there with only the clothes she is wearing. Over the months, she discovers through the Kinsellas the town of Gorey, the shore where the Irish Sea crashes in, a deep well of spring water. There’s a wake and card games played late into the night, a woman whose dog barks hotly through the bars of a gate And in this house where affection grows and there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one.