Small Things Like These
In the weeks before Christmas 1985, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant in the small Irish town of New Ross, is making his regular deliveries, worrying about his daughters, and remembering the single mother who raised him in a wealthy Protestant household where she worked as a servant. On one such delivery to the local convent, which also houses a Magdalene laundry, Bill sees something he is not meant to see, and in a community that has agreed not to notice the convent's business, the choice of whether to keep walking becomes the whole story. Claire Keegan's 2021 novella, shortlisted for the Booker Prize, is short, restrained, and unsparing on the small complicity that kept one of Ireland's cruelest institutions open for generations.
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What you might want to know about Small Things Like These
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In the weeks before Christmas 1985, coal and timber merchant Bill Furlong delivers an order to the local convent and finds something he was not supposed to see. The choice that follows could cost his family everything.
Yes. Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. It is one of Claire Keegan's most acclaimed works.
Small Things Like These is fictional but built around the real history of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, in which thousands of women were confined and exploited in church-run institutions through the late 20th century.
Small Things Like These was written by Claire Keegan, published in 1900 by Grove Press.
Small Things Like These is 112 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Small Things Like These takes most readers about 2 hours to finish.
Small Things Like These is a standalone novel by Claire Keegan, not part of a series.
Small Things Like These is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.