It’s Christmas 1985 and Bill, a coal merchant, is busy delivering orders to the village residents. One of his stops is the Magdalen Laundries, a place for “wayward” girls, ran by the Catholic church and supported by the state. Bill makes a disturbing discovery and is faced with a dilemma. Times are tough, and he and his wife are parents to five girls who could face retribution if he acts on what he has found. His first instinct is to not get involved but as he reminisces about his own mother’s h...

“This story is dedicated to the women and children who suffered time in Ireland’s Magdalen laundries”. “‘I’d no call to say that to you, Bill,’ Eileen cooled. ‘But if we just mind what we have here and stay on the right side of people and soldier on, none of ours will ever have to endure the likes of what them girls go through”. “Whatever suffering he was to meet was a long way from what the girl at his side had already endured, and might yet surpass”. This book is a work of fiction but inspired...

IlluminateClaire Keegan has crafted an outstanding novella that is heartbreakingly authentic, compelling, and reassuring in how a regular person, rejected and ultimately helped curb, the authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Claire Keegan’s writing is exquisite (I have found a book fitting of those words), and Small Things Like These gently unfolds with a beautiful descriptive rhythm. In stark contrast to the beauty of language, it touches on the atrocious and sinful actions from within t...

Thanks to Claire Keegan and Grove Atlantic Press for the advance review copy of this wonderful book. [Angel ©Zulu Art]Thank you, Claire, for your brilliant writing and for the courage to write about doing the right thing! --- “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.” ~ John Rockefeller. "Was there any point in being alive without helping one another?" "Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, throug...

"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan is a short read/listen concerning a horrific topic that everyone should know about!It's the winter of 1985 in a small Irish town where Bill Furlong lives with his wife, Eileen, and their five daughters. Bill, a coal merchant, takes a delivery to the local convent where he makes a shocking discovery that he brings to the attention of the convent's Mother Superior. When he leaves the convent, he chastises himself for being passive about his discovery as h...

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”-AesopIn this poignant novella, I became acquainted with Bill Furlong, an Irish businessman who provides wood, coal, and the like to the small community in which he has always lived. He has carved out a good life with his wife and five daughters. Furlong is an everyday hero in a world that has dealt him some harsh blows. He was born to a young unwed mother whose employer, a wealthy widowed landowner, generously took them into her home des...

This may be a short novella from the award winning Claire Keegan, but it packs a powerful punch, set in the bitterly cold winter of 1985 in Ireland in the run up to Christmas, we are inexorably drawn into the life of coal and timber merchant Bill Furlong. He was born to a 16 year old unmarried mother, employed by a kind Mrs Wilson who did not turn her out when she became pregnant. He is married to Eileen and they have 5 daughters, living in a community suffering the ravages of redundancies and d...

Small Things Like These by Claire KeeganThis novella takes place in cold and wintery 1986 Ireland. Bill Furlong, almost forty, a hard working coal merchant with a wife and five daughters, knows how good he has it. He knows all he cares for could be lost at any moment, knows that as the son of an unwed servant, he could have ended up in a very bad place. Instead, thanks to the mercy of a wealthy widow and the attention of her stable hand, Ned, Bill Furlong had a good life, even after his young mo...

Get the Tissues ReadyBill Furlong is living a quiet, unglamorous life in Ireland. He has a happy life with his wife and five daughters. They have enough to eat and aren’t living on credit. The town has known hard times, factories are closing up, and people are being laid off. Mr. Furlong is making ends meet though, delivering fuel in the form of coals and logs to the townspeople. One day, near Christmas, he makes a delivery at convent when he discovers something that doesn’t sit quite right with...

Claire Keegan has written an emotionally powerful short novel, set in the declining Irish town of New Ross in the winter of 1985. New Ross was the site of one of the infamous Magdalene laundries, a religious compound that imprisoned young women under the authority of the Roman Church and with support from the Irish government. Keegan’s story is about power imbalances and what those with relative privilege choose to do with their power. In a novel with almost all female characters, it may seem a

What a beautiful, thought provoking novella this is!In my mind there are several stories wrapped into one novella. There is the story about the Magdalen convent and home for unwed women and orphanage, with the church controlling everything in the town. There were young unwed mothers working manual labor.But for me, the strong inner core of this story is the character of Bill Furlong. It’s winter in Ireland, 1985, many men have lost their jobs, and are now living in poverty. Bill was a good man w...

EXCERPT: It would be the easiest thing in the world to lose everything, Furlong knew. Although he did not venture far, he got around - and many an unfortunate he'd seen around town and out on the country roads. The dole queues were getting longer and there were men out there who couldn't pay their ESB bills, living in houses no warmer than bunkers, sleeping in their coats. Women, on the first Friday of every month, lined up at the post office wall with shopping bags, waiting to collect their chi...

What happens when a person follows their conscience even though society tells them to look the other way? That is the nub of this little novella, told in such a pared back fashion that you'd almost be tricked into underestimating the punch it carries. But be warned, the punch is powerful when it hits you. Small books like this don't come my way often enough.

1985 + Ireland + Christmas = Prime spot on Regina’s Must Read listIn fewer than 120 pages, Claire Keegan has crafted a touching, memorable story about a working-class father of five young girls who reflects on the choice between doing what’s right versus what’s easy. Despite being born into the world under less-than-ideal circumstances, life turned out okay due to the generosity of others. When he discovers a teen in dire need of a saving from the Catholic Church’s cruel (and very real) Magdalen...

I’ve had two books by Claire Keegan on my to read list for a while now. After reading this beautifully written novella, I want to be sure I read those others now. This is a work of fiction but it brings to light some horrible abuses on young girls and women in “schools” or “homes” run by the Catholic Church in Ireland. * It’s the story of an honest man, a good man who works hard to provide for his wife and five daughters. Always restless, a little worried about the future, but in many ways, his

I don’t like short stories as I always feel ripped off. I love epic tales that I can completely get immersed in.Keegan, you’ve thrown in a monkey wrench.This is a quaint Irish Christmas story. An unremarkable man doing a remarkable thing that will have consequences.And of course I was left wanting more…..4⭐️ Because I need a longer story!!

4.5⭐After a long day of festivities, I'm happy to cuddle up under an oversized throw blanket with a cup of hot coffee and read this beautifully written novella that sends a powerful message of kindness. Set in 1985 around Christmas time in a small Irish town. Bill Furlong is a coal and timber merchant. He's a family man and a father of five. Bill was raised by his single mother with support from a widow who took her in when she was pregnant. Where would he be today without Mrs. Wilson's generosi...

It was a December of crows. People had never seen the likes of them, gathering in black batches on the outskirts of town then coming in, walking the streets, cocking their heads and perching, impudently, on whatever lookout post that took their fancy, scavenging for what was dead, or diving in mischief for anything that looked edible along the roads before roosting at night in the huge old trees around the convent. The convent was a powerful-looking place on the hill at the far side of the ri

This is a profound little novella. The writing and narration is beautiful. It's a story set in Ireland in 1985 around Christmas time.Bill Furlong is a hard working husband and father of five children. One day just before Christmas he is delivering coal around his sleepy village in Ireland when he encounters a girl in a shed on the compound of the local convent. She's cold and dirty and he discovers she has just given birth. He prepares to bring her to the Mother Superior for help. As he leaves t...

“... nothing ever did happen again; to each was given days and chances which wouldn’t come back around.”If you had the chance to do the right thing, no matter the cost, would you do it? Or would you, like a good majority of people, take the easy road and turn a blind eye to wrongdoing, injustice, or outright cruelty? It’s much easier to follow the crowd and avoid going against the powers that be. Especially if speaking up might be at the risk of putting yourself or your loved ones in jeopardy in...