Claire Keegan’s brilliant debut collection, Antarctica , was a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year, and earned her resounding accolades on both sides of the Atlantic. Now she has delivered her next, much-anticipated book, Walk the Blue Fields , an unforgettable array of quietly wrenching stories about despair and desire in the timeless world of modern-day Ireland. In the never-before-published story The Long and Painful Death,” a writer awarded a stay to work in Heinrich Böll’s old cottage has her peace interrupted by an unwelcome intruder, whose ulterior motives only emerge as the night progresses. In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage and, during the ceremony and the festivities that follow, battles his memories of a love affair with the bride that led him to question all to which he has dedicated his life; later that night, he finds an unlikely answer in the magical healing powers of a seer.

A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals eking out their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from one of Ireland’s greatest talents, and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart.

克莱尔•吉根,1968年生于爱尔兰威克洛郡乡间一个信奉天主教的大家庭,是家中最小的孩子。十七岁时,她远赴美国路易斯安那州新奥尔良市洛约拉大学,主修英语和政治学。1992年她回到爱尔兰,再相继到威尔士加迪夫大学和都柏林三一学院攻读创意写作硕士课程。1994年她开始创作短篇小说,她的两个短篇相继获得两个爱尔兰短篇小说大奖——弗朗西斯•麦克马努斯奖和威廉•特雷弗奖。她的第一部短篇小说集《南极》于1999年出版。《南极》以简洁、冷峻的笔调描写了爱尔兰许多普通人之间的情感、日常生活戏剧冲突,深受评论界好评,被称为具有雷蒙德•卡佛、威廉•特雷弗等短篇小说大师作品的神韵,为她赢得2000年度鲁尼爱尔兰文学奖这一爱尔兰文坛重要奖项以及《洛杉矶时报》年度图书奖。

克莱尔•吉根的创作极为严肃认真。一直到2007年,她才推出第二部短篇小说集《走在蓝色的田野上》,同样深受英语文坛好评,获得边山短篇小说奖。美国著名作家理查德•福特将它选为他个人的年度好书。2009年6月,理查德•福特又将由他担任评委的戴维•伯恩爱尔兰写作奖颁给了克莱尔•吉根的中篇小说《收养》。

目前,克莱尔•吉根住在爱尔兰劳斯郡乡间。