Book Review: So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan @CKeeganFiction @FaberBooks #So LateInTheDay #ClaireKeegan

Book Synopsis:

After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude – and the true significance of this particular date is revealed.
From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan’s new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women.

My Review:

So Late In The Day is a short, gripping novel that manages to fit a lot into 60 pages.

The novel opens with the main character Cathal at work where it quickly becomes apparent that he is upset about something though the reader doesn’t initially know what. It soon clear that he’s morning the loss of a women called Sabine. Over the rest of the book the reader is given a snapshot of their relationship as the author explains some of the ins and outs of their relationship.

Cathal is an interesting main character and one that I found fascinating to get to know over the course of the book. I started off feeling a lot sympathy for him as it’s obvious he’s very upset about something but as the book goes on I started to dislike him as his I learnt more about him. I loved Sabine although she doesn’t feature as much in the book. She seemed such a free spirit and I loved her approach to cooking. It’s definitely made me want to visit a farmers market and attempting to cook again.

I thought this was a beautifully written book which I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the way the character’s personality and background is slowly revealed to the reader which made me keep changing my opinion on the characters and what might have happened. It is a short book at just over 60 pages but a lot is fitted into those pages making it a very satisfying read. I’ve kept thinking about it long after reading and I have had to keep going back to re-read certain parts of it.

If your after an intriguing, character driven short read I highly recommend this one.

About The Author:

Claire Keegan’s stories are translated into more than thirty-five languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award and in 2020 was chosen by The Times as one of the top fifty works of fiction to be published in the twenty-first century. Small Things Like Thesewas shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the best work of literature, regardless of form, to be published in the English language. It won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Ambassadors’ Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.