Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Posted by Ms A on December 12, 2022 in All, Book Club Fodder, Grab it Now, Holiday Reads | Leave a comment

If you do nothing else this Christmas….

Read and/or gift this little book about an Irish Catholic coal merchant in the days leading up to Christmas in 1985.  At only 114 pages, you won’t find a single word or sentiment wasted in this story of the most precious kind.  

Bill Furlong “had come from nothing. Less than nothing, some might say.”

He was the illegitimate son of a sixteen-year-old housekeeper who died when he was just twelve.  Now aged forty with his own business, a loving wife and five daughters, Bill starts to ponder on his childhood lost and to what extent he should stand up and support others who need protection.

I fell hard for this kind and conflicted family man on page 5 and didn’t want his story to end.

Small Things Like These was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2022 and would make a perfect gift for readers of all shapes and sizes this Christmas. It is my new favourite book of the year for sure.

And that’s my 2 cents worth.