So Late in the Day
Ireland

So Late in the Day

by Claire Keegan

Women & Society Literary Fiction Essays 2023

Summary

On a summer Friday in Dublin, office worker Cathal watches the hours pass, looking forward to the weekend. Yet his thoughts keep returning to Sabine, the French woman he was once engaged to—and to the small moments and disagreements that destroyed their relationship. As the evening unfolds, details of their time together reveal a troubling portrait of a man whose rigid expectations and lack of generosity gradually undermine the possibility of love.

The 2023 collection brings together three stories: So Late in the Day, The Long and Painful Death, and Antarctica. Across these unsettling encounters, Claire Keegan examines the power dynamics between women and men, exposing how entitlement, indifference, and the threat of violence can shape intimate relationships. With extraordinary precision and emotional restraint, she finds profound meaning in ordinary conversations and seemingly insignificant gestures. The result is a quietly devastating exploration of gender, intimacy, and the harm people can inflict without ever recognising themselves as cruel.

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About the author
Claire Keegan
Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan is an acclaimed Irish writer born in 1968 who grew up on a farm near the border of County Wicklow and County Wexford. She studied English and Political Science at Loyola University in New Orleans before completing postgraduate studies in creative writing at the University of Wales and Trinity College Dublin. Known for her meticulous prose and emotionally powerful short fiction, she published her debut collection, Antarctica, in 1999, followed by Walk the Blue Fields (2007) and the novella Foster (2010). Her later novella, Small Things Like These (2021), was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Keegan’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages, earning her international recognition for exploring the moral complexities of ordinary lives. She is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most accomplished contemporary literary voices.

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Details
Published
2023
Author
Claire Keegan