absolutely brilliant in every single way! it has all the trademarks of Claire Keegan: arrestingly beautiful prose, skilled storytelling, life-like characters.

Claire Keegan's novella "Small Things Like These" is a brief yet profoundly powerful work that examines moral courage and complicity in 1980s Ireland. At the heart of the story is Bill Furlong, an unassuming coal merchant who makes a disturbing discovery while delivering to the local convent run by the infamous Magdalene laundries.
In stripped-down yet immensely lyrical prose, Keegan transforms a seemingly modest tale into a searing indictment of society's ability to turn a willful blind eye to injustice. Bill's reckoning with the convent's dark secrets becomes a crucible that tests his personal convictions against the strictures of church, state, and a culture of oppressive silence.
Despite its slender page count, the emotional depth of "Small Things Like These" is immense. Keegan wields brevity with a master's control, every finely etched detail and conversation brimming with significance and tragic tensions. Bill's quiet decency and inner turmoil render him an achingly human protagonist grappling with decisions that could upend his stable yet morally compromised life.
Bookended by the festivities of Christmas, the novella's poignant juxtaposition of sacred rituals and unspeakable institutional sins renders its impact quietly devastating. Keegan implicates an entire society in mapping the insidious reach of the church's systemic abuses and society's complicity through fear and inaction.
A literary gem as compulsively readable as it is rhetorically brilliant, "Small Things Like These" speaks urgently to our present moment's reckoning with past injustices. A masterwork of tragedy, heroism and moral courage articulated through the stuttered lives of ordinary people.

I received a free AR.C from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a short read but good. Liked the main character. His kindness was refreshing. I liked his self-reflection.

A good read.

Detailed and compelling reading, this was a difficult read at times due to the subject matter. But written with real sensitivity and consideration. I thought this was an exquisitely crafted novel that I really really loved.

One of my favorite books of the year. Claire Keegan writes so beautifully. It amazing what she can do in her short novels. She is an extraordinary writer and this is an extraordinary story. I highly, highly recommend this book and other books and short story collections by Keegan.

3 "Christmas fable superimposed on realism" stars !!!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Grove Atlantic for an ecopy. This was released November 2021. I am providing an honest review.

Also a warm thank you to Cecily who was the 23rd review of this book that I read and pushed me into finally committing me to reading this novella by her question of this might be the perfect Christmas story. Thank you to the other 22 other friends' reviews that got me to that point.

I found this to be an important story to share. A fretful good working -class Irishman in 1985 chooses not to ignore abuses and takes some action to honor his own mother and background.

The prose is rich in beauty and physical detail and evokes almost last century vibes. The psychologies were terribly simplistic in detail and for me were the weak link that could have made this Christmas story a much more impactful and meaningful one.

I most appreciated the consciousness raising about the Irish laundries that I wish to learn much more about.

I will certainly read more work by Keegan as her writing here is artful and thoughtful and I hope for more complexity and psychological depth.

A small beautiful book that definitely made me think (and feel). I would have loved for the story to continue but understand why it was kept short. A perfect Christmas read.

A beautifully written, rich and immersive short historical fiction, Small Things Like These presents richly developed characters grappling with difficult circumstances as the Christmas season approaches in small-town Ireland.

Excellent short novel set in Ireland where the Catholic church ruled. Where abortion and birth control were illegal, but for a young girl becoming pregnant out of wedlock was the biggest shame. She was ostracized but the man normally walked away without the slightest repercussion. Highlights the utter hypocrisy of the Irish government, the church, and the wealthy. Girls lost their babies through unwanted adoption and were basically sentenced to lifelong labor with no hope of reprieve. Informative read written in plain, homey narrative.

This was a beautifully written story. It almost felt like I had entered a Christmas snow globe with an entire Irish village inside it. Rich and complicated, I read it slowly and loved every word.

I would classify SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE, by Morgan Entrekin, as a historical fictional story set in 1985 in New Ross, Ireland, that centers around a coal and timber merchant, Bill Furlong, his wife Eileen, and their five daughters in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

As Bill makes his daily deliveries, he stumbles upon a ‘secret’ at the convent, one that the Catholic church and its congregants are willing to turn a blind eye to …

‘Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?’

You will have to read the book and find out for yourselves.

Highly Recommend!

‘This story is dedicated to the women and children who suffered time in Ireland’s Magdalen laundries.’

Thank You, NetGalley and Grove Press, for providing me with an eBook of SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE at the request of an honest review.

A powerful story about family, dreams and hope, packed into a small, compact story without complete resolution. Bill was a quiet, strong man who seemed taken for granted by his wife and children, who had small dreams that he still worried about reaching even as a successful middle-aged businessman, more prosperous than many in his small village. Learning of an open secret, Bill is now faced with a decision that could ruin his family, Bill chooses...and we are left to think more deeply about the choice he made and what might become of it in the end. I was left with questions rather than answers, but also a feeling of comfort and hopefulness, that things could truly change, even in a small way. Highly recommended.

This novella is so sparingly and subtly written that details keep emerging to me. How beautiful it is. How tragic it is. A modern classic. It will certainly be around for years to come.

A small and beautiful book. So much packed into a slim volume. I was surprised and now I'll be looking for other books by her.

I always love a good holiday story like this - filled with memorable characters, a vivid setting, and a mystery to unwind. Small Things Like These manages all of that while also delivering a message about the potential for goodwill during Christmastime. This delightful little novella shows us a character struggle with a moral dilemma and grow as a person, and is also historical (set in Ireland in the 80's) which always ramps up my enjoyment. What a lovely way to finish out my reading in 2022. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this gem!

A small, quiet novella that asks big questions in the most simple of ways. Like what it looks like to have morals actively tested. What it means to stand up (or not) for what is right when it’s not the socially acceptable thing to do. What it truly looks like to treat others as you would want yourself or your family to be treated.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan subtly weaves both previous (and unfortunately still currently relevant) politics within an Irish Christmas tale that will leave you clutching your heart and wanting to care a little more for those around you.

Claire Keegan`s Small Things Like These is about the things that matter in life, about doing the right thing despite the consequences. Thid book shined a light on a part of (recent) history that I knew nothing about. This book is proof that great things come in small packages.

Everything the stellar reviews promised. So slight, and yet so rich. This is the kind of book that has you immediately seeking out everything the writer has published. I was captivated by the entry point here, the way in which, through Bill Furlong, Keegan brings us into this story of women lost and forgotten. It's something to behold, so quiet, simple and huge.

This book had 2-3 highlightable quotes and apparently exemplifies historical atrocities I wasn’t previously educated about. Three stars for those efforts.
Otherwise, I’m not blown away. The pace of the book is inconsistent, starting so dully and boring until a compressed ending that just… stopped abruptly. I suppose the point wasn’t to end it. But I just can’t quite get over the thought of “… okay?”
Also, the 80s Irish language apparently is not easy to read as an American.

Set in the days leading up to Christmas 1985 in the small Irish town of New Ross, this short, sensitive novel focuses on the moral dilemma faced by its central character, Bill Furlong, who was born illegitimate just after World War II. His mother had been a domestic in the “big house” owned by Mrs. Wilson, a well-to-do Protestant widow, whose husband was killed in the war. When she fell pregnant, Bill’s mother was permitted to stay on at Mrs. Wilson’s. More than that, the widow was supportive of the unfortunate young woman and took a keen interest in Bill. He was protected in a way that the illegitimate children of other young unmarried Irish women were not. Even so, school life was painful for him. Bill stood apart from the other children, regularly enduring ugly name calling. Shame was a constant companion.,

Now approaching forty, Bill runs his own fuel business. Life is challenging. It’s a time of economic hardship, and many people are struggling to put food on the table, never mind warm their homes. Bill has a wife, and five daughters, who need looking after. He may love Eileen, but there is tension in the marriage. Much of this is related to Bill’s softheartedness—his sensitivity to the difficult circumstances others find themselves in and his willingness to postpone payment for fuel or to entirely forgive debt. —but some of it is related to Eileen’s awareness of her husband’s less-than-respectable beginnings. Keegan is too fine a writer to paint Eileen as a villain. She is depicted as a pragmatic, efficient, and even canny woman who wants the best for her daughters. Nevertheless, a cruel dig at Bill, which arises from her resentment about his tendency to help others at the expense of getting ahead himself made me dislike her intensely. Perhaps that’s testimony to just how skillful a writer Keegan is. Eileen seems very real.

The conflict at the centre of the novel concerns something Bill sees when he makes a pre-Christmas coal delivery to the town’s convent with its Magdalene laundry. <spoiler>Opening the storage shed, he finds a bedraggled young woman who has been left out in the cold for days, apparently for acting up when her baby was taken from her by the nuns.</spoiler> His own early experiences do not permit him to look away from the suffering of others. Indeed, they ultimately dictate the actions he takes.

I’m afraid that I’m not a neutral reader where the Roman Catholic Church is concerned. I acknowledge that I’m deeply biased against it for its hypocrisy, abuse of power, tolerance of the clerical sexual abuse of children, and its misogynistic practices. As quiet, sensitive, and nuanced as Keegan’s story is, it still managed to inflame me.