Seeing how his friends and neighbours are struggling, Bill knows how lucky he is to have his own business and to be happily married with five lovely children. The weather has turned cold and frosty and Bill Furlong, coal and timber merchant, finds his deliveries very much in demand, with customers desperate to heat their homes. Small Things Like These is set in a small town in Ireland during the winter of 1985.
Around the same time, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and again I saw a lot of praise for it, so when I saw how short it was (128 pages in the edition pictured here) I thought I would give it a try for this year’s Novellas in November. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.Īlready an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.I hadn’t really considered reading this book until my post on the HWA Crown Awards for Historical Fiction, when several of you commented that you had read and loved it.
During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. The landmark new novel from award-winning author Claire Keegan “A book that makes you excited to discover everything its author has ever written… Absolutely beautiful.”- Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.” - Hilary Mantel, author of The Mirror and the Light “ Small Things Like These is not just about Ireland, it’s about the world, and it asks profound questions about complicity, about the hope and difficulty of change, and the complex nature of restitution… A single one of Keegan’s grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. From winter skies to the tiniest tick of speech to the baking of a Christmas cake, Claire Keegan makes her moments real-and then she makes them matter.” - Colm Tóibín, author of The Magician This is the story of what happened in Ireland, told with sympathy and emotional accuracy.
“In Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan creates scenes with astonishing clarity and lucidity. Claire Keegan’s sentences make my heart pound and my knees buckle and I will always read everything she writes." - Lily King, author of Writers & Lovers " Small Things Like These is a hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time.
0 kommentar(er)
