The acclaimed Irish writer Claire Keegan may have published just five books in over twenty years, but each of the publications has won awards, critical success and armies of devoted readers.
Keegan is back in the headlines this week as she is the author of the Booker Prize-shortlisted story Small Things Like These (2021), which has been adapted into a major new movie opening this week starring Cillian Murphy.
Keegan's other books include her debut collection Antarctica (1999), Walk the Blue Fields (2007), Foster (2010) and So Late in the Day (2023).
The new movie, Small Things Like These, is significant for many reasons, not least because it is Murphy’s first on-screen role since clinching the Best Actor award at the Oscars in March.
It has also been a passion project for him off-screen, as he signed up to produce the film, having described her book as a "beautiful, beautiful perfect novella."
"Novella", and "long short stories" are familiar descriptions for Keegan’s work with all her books noted for their brevity.
After the publication of her most recent title So Late in the Day in 2023, The Guardian clocked up the numbers, calculating that the five books run to just 700 pages and some 140,000 words.
"I do think no story has ever been read properly unless it’s read twice," Keegan explained to the paper, adding, "It’s a longer book you see, than you think it is, because it needs to be read twice."
"Double the pages," she said with a laugh.
She then added, "Elegance is saying just enough. And I do believe that the reader completes the story."
And readers seem to agree, with Hodges Figgis amongst other shops confirming that Keegan was its bestselling author for 2023, adding that "she was head and shoulders above anyone else, she has been phenomenal, we can’t keep her in stock."
The author can seem to do no wrong as her stories have won numerous awards, have been translated into 30 languages, shifted many, many copies and are now drawing audiences to the silver screen.
Keegan, however, has stayed away from the limelight, allowing the writing to stand for itself, also saying in 2023, "I can’t explain my work. I just write stories."
Those stories though have made an international impact, and this low-key writer from Wexford has attracted reviews that would make other writers cry happy tears into their cornflakes.
Hilary Mantel said of Keegan’s writing that "every word is the right word, in the right place".
Anne Enright has described her as "the wonderful Irish writer".
Leading American author George Saunders declared that Keegan is "One of the greatest fiction writers in the world," while Stanley Tucci said, "Claire Keegan is one of the most brilliant writers ever."
Stephen King pleaded with her on X to write a sequel to Small Things Like These.
She responded to this at her Dalkey festival interview with "They say you should leave them wanting more."
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, by Claire Keegan: A perfect little jewel box of a story. There just isn't enough. I want to know what happens to Bill and Eileen (C’mon Eileen) and the girl from the convent. Time for a sequel.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 5, 2024
So how did Keegan’s writing career begin?
Born in 1968 on a farm in the Wicklow - Wexford area, Keegan grew up on the family farm observing that "We had cattle and sheep mostly and there was always dogs and cats around. We looked out at Mount Leinster and the place itself was very dear to me."
She has said that it was not "a bookish house".
When she was 16 years old, Keegan got a job cooking for an American family staying in Gorey and they invited her to join them at their home in New Orleans when she completed her leaving cert the following year.
That trip opened up the world of reading to her and she has said that her library card was such "a treat" for her as she immersed herself in the classic novelists and poets, from Sylvia Plath to John Donne and from Toni Morrison to John Steinbeck.
Keegan went on to study Literature and Politics at Loyola University, New Orleans and subsequently earned an MA at the University of Wales and an MPhil at Trinity College, Dublin.
When she returned to Ireland in 1992, jobs were thin on the ground, and after getting "300 rejection letters", she got a place on a FÁS course and started teaching creative writing to students, something she continues to this day.
She began writing herself from the age of 17 and in 1999 she had gathered enough stories to publish her debut collection of short stories, Antarctica.
The collection made a splash, garnering excellent reviews.
It won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was named a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year while The Observer called the stories "among the finest recently written in English".
Keegan wrote her second collection Walk the Blue Fields in 2007, again to great acclaim.
Then she published her longer-form book, the novella Foster in 2010.
This story follows a young girl, sent to live with foster parents on a farm in the countryside and that trip would have a profound impact on all of them.
Again, the book was enthusiastically received by readers and critics.
The Los Angeles Times described it as "the biggest, most intricately ambitious little story you’ll ever read this year."
And then a decade passed before Keegan blasted her way back into readers’ hearts with her next novella Small Things Like These published in 2021.
Then in 2023, she released her fifth publication So Late in the Day which contained three tales.
The main story in the collection follows the story of the life of a clock-watching civil servant, Cathal It was first published in the New Yorker in 2022.
Again, the critics piled in, with the Irish Times stating that "Keegan stands almost without rival."
The impact of Small Things Like These
The Small Things Like These book which led to the movie has made a significant impact on readers.
Set in 1980s Ireland, it tells the story of a coal merchant called Bill Furlong and is now included in the Leaving Cert English curriculum.
When the reader first meets the main character Bill in the book, life in 1980s Ireland is good for him and his family.
He runs a successful local business and has many customers around the town, including a long-term delivery arrangement with the local convent.
One day, when delivering coal to the nuns, he decides to investigate a coal shed attached to the laundry at the convent.
There he discovers a young woman locked up, and his reaction to the horror he witnesses sets him on a course of action that will have serious consequences for him and his family.
When the book was first published, it proved a hit with readers and reviewers and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022, winning the Orwell Prize for political fiction in 2022.
Keegan said that she received many letters in response to it.
She said: "I think it was because it touched so many people, and it had to do with the Magdalene laundries and the misogyny of the Catholic church," adding, "especially after what Catherine Corless discovered [in Tuam] ... it really touched people."
This will be the second of Keegan's stories to hit the silver screen.
It follows the global, Oscar-nominated and unexpected success of Colm Bairéad’s Irish language film An Cailín Ciúin, an adaptation of the writer’s 2010 book Foster.
That movie was released in May 2022, and it too struck a chord with audiences, breaking box office records for a film as Gaeilge.
By October 2022, An Cailín Ciúin had grossed €1m at the box office in Ireland and the UK, won a slew of awards and was nominated for the Best International Feature Film Award at the Oscars in 2023.
Later this week, the second big screen treatment for a Claire Keegan story hits cinemas with the release of Small Things Like These.
Murphy is producing the movie, along with his partner at Big Things Films, Alan Moloney.
The story was adapted by Enda Walsh, is directed by Tim Mielants and has drawn more heavy hitters with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on board as producers through their production company Artists Equity.
For Keegan herself though, we have yet to hear what she makes of their film.
She has chosen to stay away from the filmmaking process, telling The Guardian, "That’s my preference - to not hover over anybody else’s work and let them do what they need to do and have their own vision."
Indeed The Irish Independent reported that the author was speaking at a public event in Wexford in September where she had not yet seen the film, telling the audience that her involvement in the film was very limited, adding that "I have no idea really what to expect."
For her fans it seems then, the film will have to fill the gap until the next Claire Keegan title appears on the bookshop shelves.
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