Claire Keegan (Claire Keegan | Author | Books, Video, Quotes, Articles | Faber) is an Irish writer known for her short stories, which have been published in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Granta and The Paris Review. Two of her novellas have been brought to the screen.
Set in a small Irish town during the weeks leading up to Christmas 1985, ‘Small Things Like These‘ follows the experience of Bill Furlong as a hardworking coal and timber merchant, a devoted father to five daughters, and a respected member of his community.
While making a delivery to the local convent, Bill discovers a young woman named Sarah locked in a freezing coal shed. She is a victim of the Magdalene Laundries – church-run institutions where ‘fallen women’ were forced into unpaid labour. Bill is haunted by the encounter. He was himself born to an unmarried teenager but was saved from a similar fate by the kindness of his mother’s employer, Mrs. Wilson.
This is a quiet but powerful novella about moral courage and the dangers of complicit silence.
WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION AND THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE AND THE IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE DALKEY LITERARY AWARDS
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022
Check if this highly praised novella is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue here Home | South Lanarkshire Libraries (sllclibrary.co.uk)
128 pages in Faber & Faber
First published 2021
ISBN-13 : 978-0571368686
Claire Keegan