Discuss her reaction to Furlong’s prolonged anxiety. Giving away what change is in your pocket,” she says to him in bed, the night he returns from the Magdalene Laundries. What role does religion play in this novel?ĥ. After first meeting Sarah, Furlong sits alone in his truck before going “like a hypocrite, to mass.” As her author note indicates, the Magdalene Laundries, where Sarah lives, were funded by both the Irish State and the Catholic Church. Why do you think Claire Keegan chose to make the narrative so compact? How does the short sprint toward Christmas add to the climax of the novel?Ĥ. Small Things Like These occurs in just a few short weeks. Why do you think Claire Keegan chose this man for her protagonist? What special insight do you think Furlong has that encourages his decision to return to the coal shed?ģ. Furlong provides for his family what he lacked as a child. What would life be like, he wondered, if they were given time to think and to reflect over things?” How do the events that follow echo this meditation from Furlong?Ģ.

“Always it was the same … they carried mechanically on, without pause, to the next job at hand. Early in the novel, Furlong reflects on the movements of his family as they prepare for Christmas dinner. “A true gift of a book… Reading it brings a sublime Chekhovian shock.” -Andrew O’Hagan, author of Be Near Meġ. “Marvellous - exact and icy and loving all at once.” -Sarah Moss, author of Ghost Wall “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 “Small Things Like These is a hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time. This unforgettable novel is a literary masterpiece and Claire Keegan is one of the world’s greatest living writers.” -Simon van Booy “A story that reached so deep I felt the characters moving around inside me.

Small things like these claire keegan