In the past couple of years, American readers (including yours truly) have discovered the brilliance of Irish writer Claire Keegan. Her slim volumes of fiction, particularly the novellas SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE and FOSTER, are like master classes in how to say more with less. Now, in SO LATE IN THE DAY, three of Keegan’s previously published stories are collected. Even the subtitle, “Stories of Women and Men,” is an understatement. These are stories of how relations between women and men can go spectacularly or quietly awry.

"SO LATE IN THE DAY can be read in an afternoon, but you would do well to give it a quick read followed by a more reflective one. Granted the gift of hindsight, you can see with more clarity all the complexity and degrees of meaning with which Keegan imbues her fiction."

The title story, which comes first in the book, is the most recent, having been published in The New Yorker just last year. Like much of Keegan’s fiction, it feels fairly straightforward, even simplistic. But it’s only after reaching its conclusion or, even better, rereading the entire piece that its nuances come to the surface. The protagonist, Cathal, is a Dublin professional, stuck in his office working on budgets while, just outside his window, others are enjoying a Friday afternoon in July: “Down on the lawns, some people were out sunbathing and there were children, and beds plump with flowers; so much of life carrying smoothly on, despite the tangle of human upsets and the knowledge of how everything must end.”

This change of tone, placed right at the end of the opening paragraph, offers the first hint that there might be other things lurking under Cathal’s surface, thoughts and emotions. Sure enough, as he rides the bus home and starts to reflect on the circumstances of his most recent romantic relationship, the whole story --- not to mention readers’ impressions of his character --- takes a darker turn indeed.

The closing tale, “Antarctica,” finds a married woman determined to have a fling while off on a shopping weekend during the leadup to Christmas: “It was December; she felt a curtain closing on another year. She wanted to do this before she got too old. She was sure she would be disappointed.” The multiple ways in which this final sentence could be interpreted offers another glimpse into Keegan’s genius. The woman is disappointed but not in any way that she --- not to mention the reader --- would ever have expected, and the volume closes on a cold, dark note.

In between is “The Long and Painful Death,” which, despite its title, is perhaps the most upbeat story in the bunch. The protagonist here is a writer, determined to make the most of the competitive residency she’s been granted: two weeks to write at Nobel Prize–winning author Heinrich Böll’s house on Achill Island off the Irish coast. At first, she finds it hard to settle down and write, and even more so when she receives an unexpected call from a man claiming to be a German professor insistent on touring the house. Now, instead of writing or procrastinating for her own reasons, she fixes her hair, stokes the fire and even bakes a cake in anticipation of his visit, which is shockingly unpleasant. But at least her resultant anger seems to spur her creativity.

SO LATE IN THE DAY can be read in an afternoon, but you would do well to give it a quick read followed by a more reflective one. Granted the gift of hindsight, you can see with more clarity all the complexity and degrees of meaning with which Keegan imbues her fiction.