*Review* Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

 

Genre: Historical Fiction

Published: November 30, 2021

Pages: 70

Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

An international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.

I listened to the audiobook version of this short story through my library. This is my honest review. 

This tale was set in Ireland, and I think it's Northern Ireland because there is mention of religious strife. I do not remember enough about the religious conflict in Ireland to say for sure. The local convent plays a big role in the story in the end though. 

This story really seemed to be an examination of personal motivations and growth of the main character. At one point, he was the child of an unwed mother was was taken in by a family who helped to keep them from the poor house, which allowed him to become the man he is today. But it's not until he meets a young charge at the convent that he examines his/society's views on unwed mothers. Kind of a classic example of a person feeling one way about something until they are personally affected, or required to think about how they would have been affected in his case. 

Overall I give Small Things Like These 3.065 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Claire Keegan's works of fiction are internationally acclaimed and have been translated into thirty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award — the world’s richest prize for a short story. Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize. It won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the Year. She was awarded Woman of the Year for Literature in Ireland, 2022, and Author of the Year, 2023.