Antarctica

Stories

By: Claire Keegan

Narrated by: Sheena May, Aoife McMahon, Aidan Quinn, Sophie Roberts

Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

The compassionate, witty, and unsettling short stories collected here announced Claire Keegan as one of Ireland's most exciting and versatile new talents and earned comparison to the works of Joyce Carol Oates, Alison Lurie, Raymond Carver, and others. From the titular story about a married woman who takes a trip to the city with a single purpose in mind—to sleep with another man—Antarctica draws listeners into a world of obsession, betrayal, and fragile relationships.

In "Love in the Tall Grass," Cordelia wakes on the last day of the twentieth century and sets off along the coast road to keep a date, with her lover, that has been nine years in the waiting. In "Passport Soup," Frank Corso mourns the curious disappearance of his nine-year-old daughter and tries desperately to reach out to his shattered wife who has gone mad with grief. Throughout the collection, Keegan's characters inhabit a world where dreams, memory, and chance can have crippling consequences for those involved.

A Los Angeles Times Best Book of 2001, and recipient of the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the William Trevor Prize, Antarctica is a rare and arresting debut.

©1999 Claire Keegan (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Not about Antarctica ..

I love to read historical fiction and non-fiction about places I am going to travel to. Unfortunately, this collection of short stories had nothing to do with my upcoming visit to Antarctica. I listened to the first two stories, and decided to go no further. They were gloomy And quasi-predictable. If I want to be depressed or slightly worried/concerned/scared I will knowingly pick a book that overtly states that is what it is going to do to me. I returned the book to audible without continuing.

Incredible, but out of order and missing one story

I’ve just discovered Claire Keegan thanks to a New Yorker podcast where George Saunders reads her story, “So Late in the Day” (available on Audible, highly recommended). A near-perfect collection. I didn’t like the stories set in the US as much as the ones in Ireland, but that is not to say they aren’t worth listening to. My only problem is the stories were out of order compared to the book and the story “Close to the Water’s Edge” was not included. Don’t know why those things were done/switched around.

Incredibly well written

Incredibly well written. Had listened to her short story, ‘Foster’ and was immediately drawn in by her style of writing. Antarctica is much the same, just a little too melancholy for my taste.

Highly recommended even for non short-story reader

I loved these short stories. A variety of settings with an appropriate variety of narrators.

With each story I was immersed in different times and places. Particularly impressive was Keegan’s rendering of the US deep south’s back country.

A must read,

Fragmentary

Stories are too short and plotless to add up to much. Gathered together in a single volume they collapse under their own weightlessness. But all would be nice observations as part of a larger, connected narrative. I hope Claire writes a full-length novel someday!

Disturbing …

The opening story bears no reference to Antarctica - it’s just another story about violence against women … didn’t listen any further. There’s enough of that IRL