Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I really enjoyed this one and read it in one day. Look forward to much more by this author.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, set in 1970’s Ireland. A Novella packed with character and warmth. A wonderful story of a true hero.

In acknowledgment of awareness, the Protagonist in Claire Keegan’s novel makes the connection. Hard working and committed to his family, leading character is thoughtful, introspective and spiritual.
A lovely read of humanity and how one is sensitive to someone else’s suffering; Never forgetting no-one is exempt to a difficult life, hard times or unfortunate circumstances.

An absolutely charming and evocative novella. My only criticism is that it ended! Keegan's language is masterful and I was swept up in her characters by the end of the first page. I am posting this review a few weeks after I finished reading Keegan's work, but I can still see the snow settling in Bill Furlough's little Irish village. There is something quietly heroic, and quietly triumphant, about both the novella and the protagonist, that made this work an absolute delight.

Thank you very, very much to Grove Atlantic and to NetGalley for the privilege!

Small Things Like These by C. Keegan, published by Grove Atlantic/ Grove Press, is a story, set in the 1970ties in smalltown Ireland and deals with Magdalenen laundry theme.
Bill Furlong is a married man with five daughters. He's set in his every day life, a bit bored, when he discovers something he can't get out of his head.
I started redaing and it took me a minute to get into the story and when I was in it was over. was like where is the end ??
Everything seems unfinished, his family, the girl, the institution - everything.
All in all an ok read, 3,75 stars.

Sometimes the best things come in small packages. Material in this slim novella is probably familiar to most readers, but Claire Keegan writes with such fluid grace that it feels new. Bill Furlough has lived in this small Irish town all his life, a life which would have turned out far different had it not been for the kindness of a certain woman towards his mother, pregnant with him at the age of 16. After his mother's early, sudden death, he is more or less raised by her mother's employer, and in 1985 during Christmas week, Bill, now married, prosperous, and father to 5 daughters, learns of a horror in the community he was previously unaware of. Yes, this is a quick read, but it is one that will live in the heart.

Fantastic---a book of quiet grace, a reminder of the power and courage it takes to do the right thing, and the value of a ordinary life. Everyone knows a Bill Furlong, and you're lucky to do so.

Here's a bit of superb writing from the end: "Already he could feel a world of trouble waiting for him behind the next door, but the worst that could have happened was also already behind him; the thing not done, which could have been -- which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life."

Feels a bit like "A Christmas Carol" or "It's a Wonderful Life," though darker and more nuanced, of course, as it centers on the relationship between a small Irish community and the nearby Magdalen laundry for unwed mothers.

I loved this book which brought back many (not so fond) memories of growing up as a Catholic. I cheered the quiet heroism of the main protagonist who just knew he had to do what was right whatever the consequences. Not much happened in the book but it was full of wonderful descriptions which really brought it to life. The book seemed short (but this could be because I read it in one sitting!).

This story is about doing the right thing and helping others when they are in need even when you know that the repercussions will not be in your favor. Loved this book, highly recommend.

“As they carried on along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? 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?”

Set mostly in Ireland in a town called New Ross in 1985.
Bill Thurlong is a coal merchant and during winter is very busy delivering coal. Bill never forgot his past. His mother died when he was young and he was cared for by the woman who had employed his mother. Bill never knew who his father was.
Bill has a wife and five daughters. Every day Bill is reminded how lucky he and his family are and often helps others who were not so lucky.
One day when delivering coal to the local convent he meets a young girl polishing the floor and she asks him to help her by taking her away.
Bill gets thinking about his life and family and the fate of the young girls working in the laundry at the convent.
This was about families and family relationships.

Small Things Like These is no small thing. It is one of the most lyrical, thought provoking books that I’ve read in a very long while. Rarely do I think about rereading current fiction, but this volume is a keeper. It will be at the top of my Christmas giving list.

Set in a in a 1980s Irish village, Claire Keegan approaches the looming danger of institutional cruelty. Evil is uncovered and recounted through the kind eyes of a loving family man. Bill Furlong, stumbles upon a dark secret and cannot turn away. What can one man do in a close society that turns away from awfulness within its midst?

The pre-Christmas setting is a powerful counter point for an inside look at the cruelty of the Magdalene Laundries. (“Fallen women’ suffered in these asylums, which the Catholic Church did not close until late in the 1990s.)

Small Things has obvious allegorical implication that resonate throughout history. We are occasionally called on to make choices about small things and our choices do make a difference. Keegan’s hopeful note is that Individual acts of kindness and caring can trump evil but are never easy choices to make.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for the chance to read their upcoming issue of this European best seller.

Normally I shy away from short stories but I always make an exception for the author Claire Keegan. Her stories always grab me from the first page. I love her Irish settings and how she incorporates the funny Irish sayings that my Nana used to say.
This story is about a contented and happy father of daughters . He is a hard worker who cherishes his family and he is kindhearted with a deep empathy for the abused unwed mothers who live in the village convent. His own background and love for his mother and benefactor allow him to have a special insight into the injustice and condemnation of an unwed mother. This empathy is something that his wife and the others in his village do not possess.

I honestly feel kinda bad for giving this book such a low-rate review, but as much as I wanted to like and feel this story, it simply didn't work for me.

Small Things Like These has such a good premise, but it is so poorly executed that everything good about it, went down the water. Before I started reading it, I even researched a little about the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland (being a Brazilian, I wasn't much familiarized with it), and that even got me a little more excited to read it and see how those horrifying events were treated in the book.

Let me explain why I`m being so harsh with STLT. For starters, this book is so short that the whole story seems hastily told, and it seemed that the author lost a lot of time writing about trivialities that could have occupied so much less space in the book. All of a sudden, the main character, William Furlong discovers the really bad situation some girls live in the laundry run by nuns in his little town and from that point on begins to question his and the entire borough's fault in letting that horrid affair happen under their noses.

For most of the 128 pages, the chapters give out the impression of having been written separately by a group of people, that at the end decided to put it all together and release it in book form. The whole Magdalen Laundries is but a very faded background for Furlong's self-pity story of how he's not as good a person as the couple who raised him after his mother's early demise.

I find it hard to believe that being released by such a highly regarded publishing house, that this book couldn't have gone through a more thorough and critical editing work. Also, I expected so much of this book after finding out that the author even teaches a course about writing, that my disappointment was even bigger.

Keegan's "Foster" is one of my favourite books of all time and I was very excited to read this. She has a particular skill for taking very Irish stories and telling us the world of the story in a very short number of pages: her writing is a masterclass in the unsaid, the reading between the lines, making her readers ruminate on what is happening (or not happening as the case may be) and turning the small-town Ireland story into a universal reflection on people.

This novella is told from the point of view of Bill Furlong, local coal merchant in New Ross, husband and father of five daughters. Son of a single mother. We hear about his everyday woes and worries about work and family, and when he delivers coal to the local Convent we see him grapple with the hold the Catholic Church still has on the area.
It is set in 1985, but reading you'd easily forget and think it was decades earlier and then be jolted back to reality that it actually wasn't that long ago, due to Keegan's clever way of framing this story.
I loved it. I will absolutely reread it again soon as I know I'll have missed on things during the first reading and I'm already looking forward to it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the advance copy of this in return for an honest review.

This is a super short book but it packs a punch. It has a touch of Irish history and is a gem of a family story but the themes run much deeper. I think it's really about about the choices we have everyday. Daily we get chances to turn a blind eye or to involve ourselves with the world, its injustices and power imbalance This all plays out for Bill during the few days that lead up to Christmas. It's about how our pasts shape us and make us react differently even if we share basic human values. There's SO much depth but it's explored through an extremely easy to read real story about real people. I love the main character and aspire to be more like him! The characters are all people we know and the choices they make are human and understandable. I was born in Ireland so this was an easy read for me but I' did suggest adding a glossary of Irish terms as I'm pretty sure an American audience might be a bit lost with terms like "sliotar"! (It's a kind of ball used in hurling, which is like hockey but one of the gaelic sports only played in Ireland.) I left Ireland in 1985 so I totally related to the sense of place in this book. The language was spot on and made me homesick for my Irish relatives. The audio book should be a delight. I had never heard of this author before and look forward to reading all she has written. I think a book club would have a fantastic discussion wondering what happens after to Bill and his lovely family. His choice will have repercussions and perhaps even a sequel? Thanks for the arc - Mary Silva.

3.5 stars

A gentle, moving novella about the small moments that make up a life, and that have the power to change it as well. I enjoyed this, but I can't say much more than that. It's the kind of story you read, and enjoy while you're reading, but not really the kind of story you're likely to think about after you've finished it. I found this forgettable, yes, but that doesn't mean that that will be the case for you too. I'd still recommend this, and I will definitely read whatever Claire Keegan comes out with next.

Thanks so much to Grove Press for providing me with an e-ARC of this in exchange for an honest review!

A personal story about the the Magdalene laundries and workhouses in Ireland. The main character's mother could have easily been a victim of the system, as could he. He finds the courage to make a difference, even when others in his town, including his family choose to turn away. It is about the power of one person to stand up for what is right and begin healing.

I think the term 'little gem' was invented for books like this.

It is a sweet Christmas tale of a good man in a small and cold Irish town in the 1980s.

You can read it in an evening, preferably in December, and you'll have a beautiful evening!

Thanks to Grove Atlantic for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautifully written, enthralling story of compassion. In a town quietly controlled by the church, Bill Furlong’s mother, and indeed himself, were saved by her boss, a widow who took him as a protege. Many years later, married and with five daughters of his own, he comes across a number of girls at the local convent. These have been cut off by their families. Why? What happened to them? Was it the same thing that happened to his mother? What is happening in the convent? Will he turn a blind eye like everyone else? What would be of him had Mrs. Wilson not lent a helping hand? I thank the author, the editor and #netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. It will stay with me for a very long time.

This book seemed to come with a lot of hype, and it is tight and captivating narrative. However, it would fit better in a collection as novella rather than a standalone novel in my opinion. I am always interested in books that cast light on lesser known stories and this book did make me want to research the subject matter much more after. The story also left me wanting more in a bit unsatisfying way though as well. Nevertheless, this is a well written story that did keep me interested throughout.