Small Things Like These
“It would be the easiest thing in the world to lose everything,”
About This Book:
Published: 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Weeks before Christmas 1985 in a small Irish town, coal and timber merchant Bill Furlong delivers coal to the local convent and discovers a young woman locked in the coal shed. She's freezing, terrified, and clearly being held against her will. Bill has to decide whether to look away like everyone else or do something that could destroy his family's standing in a town controlled by the Church.
At 116 pages, it's one of the shortest books ever shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The book won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and became an international bestseller. In 2024, it was adapted into a film starring Cillian Murphy.
Claire Keegan is an Irish writer known for her short stories and novellas. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages and won numerous awards.
Perfect for readers who appreciate: Irish literature, historical fiction, moral dilemmas, literary fiction, short novels
Why We Recommend This Book:
The power is in what Keegan doesn't say. The book highlights the pressure we can feel to stay silent when we know something is wrong. How we look away to protect ourselves. Bill Furlong's quiet moral crisis reminds us that doing the right thing often means risking everything we've built, and that the small choices we make when no one is watching define who we are.
The writing is spare and beautiful. Keegan doesn't waste a single word. She doesn't tell you what to think or feel. She just shows you a man at a crossroads and lets you sit with the impossibility of his choice.
