Summary of Small Things Like These
When Bill Furlong, a coal merchant in New Ross, County Wexford, makes a delivery to the local convent and “training school for girls” during Christmastime in 1985, he has strong suspicions that the nuns are abusing the young women in their care, although he lacks strong evidence. Yet, taking action is challenging, as the church controls almost every aspect of life in the small town, and the other residents seem content to turn a blind eye, preferring not to know what might be happening within the convent.
Reasons to read Small Things Like These
“Small Things Like These” is a quiet yet powerful Christmas story centred around a Magdalene laundry asylum in Ireland. Claire Keegan is an Irish writer mostly known for her short stories (in particular “Foster”) and her novella “Small Things Like These”, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, won the 2022 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and was adapted into a film of the same title in 2024.
Setting: New Ross (Ireland)
“Small Things Like These” is set in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. Although there was no Magdalene laundry in New Ross itself, the novel draws on real abuses that occurred in such institutions across Ireland. Its themes resonate with Peter Mullan’s earlier film “The Magdalene Sisters”.
Original title: Small Things Like These
Year of publication: 2021
Nr of pages: 128
