HT reviewer Majid Maqbool picks his favourite reads of 2023

Irish writer Claire Keegan’s latest collection of short fiction, So Late in the Day, is an astute examination of casual misogyny and sexism that, in the end, deprives the protagonist of prospects of marriage and a happy family life.

Keegan’s short fiction is a masterclass in brevity and narrative precision. More is conveyed in a few words and every sentence packs a punch. What is not said also allows the reader to expand his imagination. Her stories are suffused with understated knowledge, restraint and subtext. At just over 6000 words (64 pages), there are no needless descriptions and long passages of overwrought prose in So Late in the Day. Keegan keeps it simple, not simplistic, and you’re hooked from the opening paragraph. These works make you want to read them repeatedly and I found that the second reading is even more rewarding, unlocking doors to more meanings, adding depth to the stories.

This year, I also read and enjoyed the same author’s earlier novella, Foster (2010), a moving story narrated by a young girl who is sent away by her dysfunctional family to live with foster parents in rural Ireland in the summer of 1981. The perfectly realized ending will break your heart.

Shortly after reading Foster, I watched the Oscar-nominated Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) based on the same story. The film, which made history as the first Irish language film to be nominated for an Oscar, brings to life Keegan’s characters, beautifully evoking the understated emotions, meaningful pauses, silences, kindness, love and hope that heighten her fiction.

Then there are the poems of Mosab Abu Toha, a young poet and writer from Gaza, who was recently awarded the prestigious Derek Walcott Prize for his moving debut collection, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza (City Lights, 2022).

Mosab grew up amidst the siege and has seen friends die from Israeli strikes. His powerful autobiographical poetry draws on his lived experiences:

“It is like we are living in a grave; we are not dead,

we are going about our daily business, but in a grave.

We are living in place of the dead person.”

Mosab’s poetry goes beyond reflecting the pain and suffering of his people to show their resilience and undefeated hope even as devastation surrounds them.

“In Gaza, you can find a man planting a rose in the hollow space

of an unexploded tank shell, using it as a vase.”

Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is a firsthand education in the suffering of the besieged people of Gaza. In November, Mosab was detained by Israeli forces while trying to cross into Egypt with his family. He was released following a global outcry. His frantic Instagram posts read like the beginnings of new poems:

“No wallet, no money, no credit cards.

Everything was confiscated

I’m in pain.”

READ MORE: HT reviewers pick their best reads of 2023

Majid Maqbool is an independent journalist based in Kashmir.