Foster

Claire Keegan

2010 • Faber & Faber

I like imagining being a child […] And I’ve minded children for years. I used to mind children when I was little more than a child myself. I’m really interested in how powerless children are and how much at the mercy of their parents and their minders they are. And how they don’t usually have anyone to go to if things are bad. I am interested in power, in how we treat and mistreat each other within our relationships and particularly in the relationships between parents and children […] Surely, a child’s senses are just as sharp as an adult’s […] and maybe more so because they’re not so dulled by experience. And disappointment. I think it’s our own forgetfulness and frailty and weakness that we think the child isn’t picking everything up.

— Claire Keegan

Novel English Language

Foster

Claire Keegan

2010 • Faber & Faber

I like imagining being a child […] And I’ve minded children for years. I used to mind children when I was little more than a child myself. I’m really interested in how powerless children are and how much at the mercy of their parents and their minders they are. And how they don’t usually have anyone to go to if things are bad. I am interested in power, in how we treat and mistreat each other within our relationships and particularly in the relationships between parents and children […] Surely, a child’s senses are just as sharp as an adult’s […] and maybe more so because they’re not so dulled by experience. And disappointment. I think it’s our own forgetfulness and frailty and weakness that we think the child isn’t picking everything up.