Antarctica: ‘A genuine once-in-a-generation writer.’ THE TIMES

Product Information

She imitated the cat purring, rolling her r‘s the way they’d taught her in Spanish class, while hailstones rapped the windowpanes.

In the seven stories here, Keegan pursues trajectories of failure and obsession with a measured, almost documentary reserve, and in a prose style that never deviates from clear, crystalline beauty throughout. The last story 'The Ginger Rogers Sermon', was possibly one of the weakest,

I think this is the story of a man with five daughters, in a marriage, who’s running a coal yard and is probably a workaholic, and maybe facing some kind of midlife crisis. Breathlessly acclaimed in Britain, America, and here at home, Claire Keegan has already achieved the kind of rapturous critical praise which is usually only afforded to established literary giants. With Antarctica, Claire Keegan presents us with a series of small worlds under glass, that you shake for snow.

Almost everyone, at one time or another, has dreamed of a different life for themselves, and I believe that this is why many of these stories are so relatable. The true figure of those held remains unknown but it is often said to be at least 10,000, though some have guessed the real figure may be as high as 30,000. She held her nose and slid underwater, listened to the blood pumping in her head, the rush and cloud in her brain.This particular detail, not remotely germane, seems to be, like the woman's name, Cordelia -- and indeed, the title of the collection -- the product of a grandiose vision or an overreaching ambition that in this story and others threatens to weaken the narrative fabric. Set on the Texas coast ‘Close to the Water’s Edge’ represents the only tonal misstep in the collection.