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Faber is to publish Claire Keegan's latest novel, Small Things Like These, next autumn.
Publisher Alex Bowler acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Felicity Blunt at Curtis Brown. The novel has already generated considerable international rights interest, with Anna Stein securing a deal with Elizabeth Schmitz and Katie Raissian at Grove for North American rights, and translation rights sold in France (Sabine Wespieser), Holland (Nieuw Amsterdam), Norway (Aschehoug), Germany (Steidl Verlag), Denmark (Gutkind) and Lithuania (Baltos Lankos). Offers for Spanish and Catalan rights have also been received.
Descibed as "delicately wrought" and "beautiful", the synopsis states: "In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a family man, confronts his past and a discovery which leads him to find and renew the fire and freshness in his heart. Told with restraint and grace, it displays Claire Keegan's phenomenal talent, a writer who has won praise from Hilary Mantel, Anne Enright and Richard Ford."
Bowler said: "An exquisite wintery parable, Claire Keegan’s long-awaited return tells the story of a simple act of courage and tenderness, in the face of conformity, fear and judgement. To read it is to be deeply touched by hope and by the sheer storytelling brilliance of one of Ireland’s great writers."
Blunt added: "Claire is an extraordinary writer, one whose stories bury themselves inside of you, emotionally resonant and sharp-edged with truth. She is a writer for all times. I am delighted that Faber and Alex Bowler have such big plans for her for 2021."
Keegan's first collection of short stories, Antarctica, was completed in 1998, and she was awarded the Rooney Prize for Literature. Her second short-story collection, Walk the Blue Fields, won her the 2008 Edge Hill Prize for Short Stories. Foster, a short novel, was published in 2010 and won the Davy Byrnes Award, judged by Richard Ford.
Translation enquiries should be sent to claire.nozieres@curtisbrown.co.uk.