“Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave?”, he asks himself. While the rest of the town might turn a blind eye, Bill’s status as an outsider looking in makes it difficult for him to ignore what he knows is wrong, but speaking up might jeopardise what he has worked so hard for. A timber delivery to the Good Shepherd Convent (whose nuns also run the school his daughters attend), leaves Bill dubious about whether the Sisters, whose authority and reputation in town is unquestioned, have the best interest of the girls they are supposed to take care of at heart. We find ourselves in this cosy stupor when the narrative takes an ominous turn and Bill notices that some things are not quite right in this picture-postcard town. Keegan’s prose manages to bring New Ross to life with detailed descriptions of town life scenes: we accompany the Furlongs while they bake mince pies, put up the tree, walk down snowy, cobblestoned streets and shop for presents. Over the years, he has done his share to fit in and has managed to give his family a good status in the community: they go to Church, his daughters attend Catholic school and, this time of year, they are all involved in the town’s Christmas celebrations. Theirs is the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and Bill, born to an unwed woman and raised in a protestant household, has always felt like an outsider.

Bill Furlong is a good father and husband, a self-made man in the timber business trying to support his wife and daughters through uncertain times. The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.Set in the days leading to Christmas 1985, Claire Keegan’s second novel, Small Things Like These (Faber 2022), explores the relationship between personal values and society’s demands in New Ross, a small Irish town. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him - and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. 'A haunting, hopeful masterpiece.' Sinead Gleeson 'Marvellous-exact and icy and loving all at once.' Sarah Moss 'This is a tale of courage and compassion, of good sons and vulnerable young mothers. Every word is the right word in the right place, and the effect is resonant and deeply moving.' Hilary Mantel 'A single one of Keegan's grounded, powerful sentences can contain volumes of social history. THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FOSTER, ANTARCTICA AND WALK THE BLUE FIELDS CURENTLY REPRINTING PLEASE ALLOW 1-2 WEEKS FOR DELIVERY

Claire keegan small things