Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

This is a gem of a book.

It’s only 110 pages, so more of a novella or short story but it’s so beautifully written that having finished it, I straight away wanted to reread it. It’s deceptively simple as it tells the story of Bill Furlong, local coal merchant in New Ross, as he makes his deliveries in the week leading up to Christmas in 1985.

It was a very different Ireland, money scarce, jobs scarce, the church very much in control. Bill is a contented married man with five daughters but he is different in that he was a child of an unmarried woman who was befriended, given refuge by a Protestant family.When he becomes aware of a ‘situation’ at the local convent laundry he feels compelled to take action.

“Surely they only have as much power as we give them”

It also beautifully depicts the people of small town Ireland, where everyone knows their place in society & with little exposure to the outside world. The author captures the lives of the shopkeepers, café owners, barbers, the country people, saying much in few well chosen observations. It’s a joyful, sad story of small lives lived heroically. 

You can find Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan here at Midland Books.