The Forester's Daughter

Faber 90th Stories brings together some of our finest short stories, past, present and future.

The evening is fine. In the sky a few early stars are shining of their own accord. She watches the dog licking the bowl clean. This dog will break her daughter's heart, she's sure of it.

Claire Keegan's mesmeric story takes us into the heart of the Wicklow countryside, and of the farming family of Victor Deegan, with his 'three teenagers, the milking and the mortgage'.

When Deegan finds a gun dog and gives it as a present to his only daughter, his wife is filled with foreboding at this seeming act of kindness. As the seasons pass, long-buried family secrets threaten to emerge.

About the Author

Claire Keegan was born in 1968. Her first collection of short stories, Antarctica, received the Rooney Prize for Literature, and announced her as an exceptionally gifted and versatile writer of contemporary fiction. Her second short story collection, Walk the Blue Fields, was published to enormous critical acclaim in 2007 and won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories.

Claire lives in County Louth, Ireland.