An author that Haruki Murakami has been paying attention to for the past 20 years.
Finally meeting Korean readers!

In his native Ireland, he has long been a master, but since 2021, he has gradually become a hot topic among American readers, and now, as if trying to make up for lost time, there is a novelist who is desperately sought after.
This is the story of Claire Keegan, a representative writer of modern Irish literature who is called “a writer who comes only once in a generation.”
Haruki Murakami praised Keegan in 2004 when he included his work in the revised edition of Birthday Stories, a collection of short stories by foreign authors, saying, “Keegan writes concise sentences with concise words, and combines them to create concise scenes.”

The Guardian once described Keegan's work as "as rare and precious as a diamond in a coal mine," a distinction that stems from the fact that he published only four books during his 24-year career.
Keegan has won numerous awards for his work, including the Orwell Medal, the Rooney Island Literary Award, the William Trevor Award, and the Edge Hill Prize, and his latest work, Small Things Like These, has made a strong impression on critics and readers alike, being shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.


"The Girl in Trust" is Claire Keegan's work being presented in Korea for the first time.
This book, which won the 2009 Dave Burns Award, was first published in an abridged version in The New Yorker in February 2010, and then, unusually for a novella, was published as a standalone volume in October of the same year.
In Ireland, it has been included in the curriculum since its publication and has become a novel read by all the country's citizens.
This work was produced as the film "The Silent Girl" by director Colm Baird in 2022, and became the first Irish film to be nominated for the Best International Feature Film award at the 95th Academy Awards, and won two awards at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. It is scheduled to be released in Korea on May 31st of this year.


A girl who was left in the care of a relative one summer,
The first time I experienced affectionate care and love there

The book tells the story of a young girl living in rural Ireland who spends a summer at the home of a distant relative.
Although it is not explicitly stated in the book, the story is set in the early 1980s, as evidenced by the reference to the “Irish hunger strike” in the news reports.
A girl who has been living in a poor household with many children and not receiving proper care is left in the care of her distant relatives, the Kinsella couple, until her mother, who is pregnant with another baby, gives birth to her younger sibling.
And what she encounters upon arriving at the house is completely different from the daily life she has experienced so far.


“As soon as he takes my hand, I realize that my father has never held my hand before, and I wish he would just let go so I don’t have to feel like this.
It's a tough feeling, but as I walk, my heart begins to calm down.
I leave the difference between my life at home and my life here alone.” _pp. 69-70

Unlike her indifferent father who never held her hand, the girl meets an adult who holds her hand and walks with her, and encounters emotions she feels for the first time.
A house with a mother who takes care of the girl with great care and attention, and a man who appears blunt on the outside but is actually very affectionate.
The love and affection the girl experiences for the first time in her life are all the more heartwarming and poignant through the stark contrast between the two families.


In fact, this plot itself is not entirely new, but it is precisely at this point that the author's excellence shines.
Keegan has a knack for telling this old, perhaps clichéd, story with such vividness and specificity that it feels unlike any other story.


Moreover, unlike most novels that conveniently employ the 'precocity of children' as a narrator, one of the characteristics of Keegan's novels is that it consciously rejects it.
Living up to the New York Times' praise of this book as "the finest novel ever written for children," Keegan tells the story as if he were inside the child's mind.
In a conversation with one writer, he revealed that he had discovered details surrounding the character, one of which was "a scene one night where the Kinsellas are lying in their bed and talking about what to do with this poor girl."
He recalled this deeply moving moment and, as to why he left it out of the text, said, “The narrator, the little girl, does not know about it.
“I can’t tell you what the girl doesn’t know,” he replied.


Perhaps because of this, the girl in the novel is neither familiar with the rules prevalent in the adult world, nor does she fully understand the past sorrows of the Kinsella couple.
Instead, by looking at the lives of adults with eyes that are pure yet filled with anxiety, it allows readers to feel both purer hope and more vivid sadness.
That is, it makes the reader expect what the character wants, and conveys to the reader a tremendous sense of sorrow when their wish is not fulfilled.

Claire Keegan, a writer who doesn't waste a single word
A perfectly and beautifully distilled story
“Keegan is a writer who doesn’t waste a word.” (The Times)

This is the praise a journalist gave to Keegan's latest work, "Such Little Things," when it was published, saying that he had been waiting for Keegan's new work for over a decade, but there was no need to be disappointed at all that it was only 114 pages.
One characteristic of Keegan's novels is their short length.
As he confessed in an interview, “A lot of my work is spent removing the traces of my labor,” Keegan never ceases to strive to strip away what is around him until only the essence remains in all his works.
Rather, his philosophy is that because the quantity is limited, he must squeeze out what he can from this narrow space.
『The Girl Entrusted』 is also a short yet long work that is packed with details and devices with great density, so you discover something new every time you read it, and the more you read it, the more rewarding it becomes.


Keegan carefully reveals to his readers the uniqueness of the world he envisions, allowing them to see, feel, hear, and bring it into their lives.
As the translator says, “Claire Keegan’s writing, which clearly conveys the mood with precise word choice while leaving the specific interpretation to the reader, is beautiful like a watercolor painting with unclear boundaries but vivid colors.” Keegan’s deep and delicate empathy, exquisitely woven details, ecstatic and sparkling writing style and descriptions, and concise but powerful story come together to feel like a work of art.


"The Girl Entrusted to Us" is less than 100 pages long, including the parts where the novel unfolds.
But this story, distilled and clear, and heartbreakingly beautiful, will move you more than any thick book you'll read this year.


Recommendation

It will move you as much as any thick book you read this year.
_[New York Times]

A crystallization of refined beauty and incremental power.
_[Guardian]

It's just as sad as you'd expect, but surprisingly more vivid than you'd expect.
_[Los Angeles Times]

A carefully crafted story at a beautiful pace.
Keegan truly gets into the mind of a child and creates a story that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.
_[Sunday Express]

A book of finely crafted beauty and accumulated power.
A story unfolding with allusion, precision, and effective detail.
_[Observer]