Claire Keegan is a very, very good short story writer. Within less than fifty pages she can create a whole world and characters that you respond to – and in this case, with increasing wariness and dislike. It’s a short story, so spelling out the plot would eviscerate it completely, so I’m not going to even try. The most I can do is tell you that it is set on a sunny Friday morning in Dublin, and Cathal is at work even though the date was, or should have been, an important one.
I’m glad that she changed the title that she had originally chosen for this book, which I’m not going to tell you either. You can read it at the end of the book after your quick afternoon’s read of the whole thing. By changing the title, she allows you as a reader to come to your own opinions about the characters, instead of having it framed for you from the start.
But Faber takes us for mugs. This $20.00 hardback could be read in an hour for a rapid reader. It appeared in the New Yorker magazine in February 2022, as have other of her stories. I guess that Faber are cashing in while they can, but I can’t help feeling a bit ripped off. I’m glad I got it from the library instead.
My rating: 9/10
Sourced from: Yarra Plenty Regional Library
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 
Dare I tell you that I read it online as the result of a blogger writing about it? I have since bought it as a gift, even knowing it could be read online, and I got great pleasure in doing so because such a story deserves beautiful packaging I think. (I did though read another blogger – Kimbofo perhaps – feeling ripped off.)
Oh, and I agree with you about her original title. A little lesson how important titles can be to the experience.