So late in the day : stories of women and men

Title:

Author:

Summary:

"Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics and an arc from Keegan's earliest to her most recent work. In "So Late in the Day," Cathal faces a long weekend as his mind agitates over a woman with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently; in "The Long and Painful Death" a writer's arrival at the seaside home of Heinrich Böll for a two-week writing residency is disrupted by an academic who imposes his criticisms and opinions; and in "Antarctica" a married woman travels out of town to see what it's like to sleep with another man and ends up in the grip of a possessive stranger. Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and men: a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, the looming threat of violence."-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First edition.

First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.

Contents:

So late in the day -- long and painful death -- Antarctica.

Physical Description:

119 pages ; 20 cm

Genre:

Short stories.

Subject Term:

Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.

Men -- Fiction.

Women -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Grove Press,

Publication Date:

2023

ISBN:

9780802160850

Publication Information:

New York : Grove Press, 2023.

Call Number:

KEEGAN

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode

33607003538728

Collection

New Adult Fiction

Call Number

KEEGAN Claire

Status

Searching...

Item Holds

Searching...

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

From Booker Prize Finalist and bestselling author of "pitch perfect" (Boston Globe) Small Things Like These, comes a triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men.

Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, considered "among the form's most masterful practitioners" (New York Times), Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories, newly revised and expanded, together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics and an arc from Keegan's earliest to her most recent work.

In So Late in the Day , Cathal faces a long weekend as his mind agitates over a woman with whom he could have spent his life, had he behaved differently; in The Long and Painful Death , a writer's arrival at the seaside home of Heinrich Böll for a residency is disrupted by an academic who imposes his presence and opinions; and in Antarctica , a married woman travels out of town to see what it's like to sleep with another man and ends up in the grip of a possessive stranger.

Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and men: a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, the looming threat of violence. Potent, charged, and breathtakingly insightful, these three essential tales will linger with readers long after the book is closed.

Author Notes

Claire Keegan 's works of fiction are internationally acclaimed and have been translated into thirty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award -- the world's richest prize for a short story. Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize. It won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the Year. She was awarded Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland, 2022, and Author of the Year, 2023.

Reviews (1)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Keegan (Foster) imbues the three stories in her exquisite collection with the keen awareness of human fallibility characteristic of her previous work. The title story is set on a momentous day in the life of Cathal, whom the reader meets while he shuffles through dull office work and contemplates his own foibles. By the time he's home alone with his cat and a microwave dinner, he's revealed himself to be a lonely and hateful man who, because of his lack of generosity, has just lost something irretrievable. In "The Long and Painful Death," set at a remote seaside writer's retreat, a woman cleverly repurposes a middle-aged German professor's crusty misogyny for her own creative ends. "Antarctica" is the terrifying story of a happily married woman's ill-fated quest for a moment of sexual fulfillment with another man during the Christmas holidays. Each of Keegan's male characters is culpable in whatever trouble they get themselves into. Her women have agency, but are shackled by the poisonous attitudes of the men they encounter. Written over a span of 20 years, these pristine stories demonstrate the author's genius for economy. Keegan says in a paragraph what other writers take entire novels to reveal. (Nov.)

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