So Late in the Day

Simply put, Claire Keegan is one of the greatest fiction writers in the world. -- George Saunders

Claire Keegan makes her moments real - and then she makes them matter. -- Colm Tóibín

'An astonishing writer. There's nobody like her.' ― Irish Times

A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving. -- Hilary Mantel

One of the great, affecting and powerful Irish voices. -- Sarah Jessica Parker

Keegan is the goddess of small things. Her ability to conjure whole worlds from a few words, an entire relationship from a handful of exchanges, is little short of miraculous. ― Herald

Claire Keegan is my favourite writer in the English language. -- Dennis Lehane

Keegan's fiction makes most novels look too fancy; her short stories make most prose seem too plain. Her inner and outer landscapes, the palpable and the imagined, are all of a piece. You think you are just looking - it turns out you are travelling. ― London Review of Books

Brevity is unusually satisfying in Keegan's hands . . . Even in her earliest stories she is a superb stylist: every well-structured paragraph contains multitudes; at sentence level there is a febrile power to her word choices and rhythms . . . there is no overthinking or showing off. Instead, Keegan offers plausibility rooted in vivid details that generate a complex emotional authenticity. It is incredibly engrossing . . . Each brief work is worth the wait: Keegan is something special ― Sunday Times

A mini-masterpiece . . . There is nothing demonstrative about this prose, which is not spare but restrained, strategically discharging touches of eloquence only when needed, and not through a profusion of descriptive detail, but through choice adjectives and verbs that just stray from the literal . . . Keegan stands almost without rival. ― Irish Times

Claire Keegan is known for Tardis-like narratives that are bigger on the inside . . . So Late in the Day illuminates misogyny across Irish society. ― Guardian

There aren't enough words in the universe to fully describe quite how affecting this little book is . . . As an object, it's a hardback tiny work of art in itself . . . As with all of Keegan's work the pace is perfectly measured, like a relaxed heartbeat . . . Each sentence, each word is meticulously placed . . . As always, Keegan describes the domestic quotidian in beautiful detail, elevating it - women's work - to an art form . . . This is a treasure of a book. ― Sunday Independent

Astonishing . . . perfect. ― Prima

Quietly devastating . . . An understated cousin to Kristen Roupenian's dating horror, Cat Person. ― Observer

A quietly devastating character study of a man whose misogyny and meanness destroy what may be his best chance of happiness. ― Irish Times