💡 Good things often come in small packages, a proverb exemplified by Claire Keegan’s Booker Prize-shortlisted Small Things Like These. The award-winning historical fiction novella, published in 2021, takes place in 1985 in an Irish town around Christmas. The story centers on morality and religion, questioning the weight of small acts when they matter most.

We follow our main character and narrator Bill Furlong, witnessing his simple, working-class life and inner thoughts. Furlong, the town’s coal and wood merchant, travels around in his lorry making home deliveries — but what happens when he stumbles upon a tightly-held town secret?

A moral reckoning slowly unravels as Furlong, in the midst of a busy schedule, takes time to contemplate his current life, his unique upbringing, and the town’s absurdities. When he eventually finds himself at a tipping point, he makes heavy realizations that see the story shift into action. However, even then, Keegan keeps the progression subtle.

Small Things Like These is a character study wrapped in a town mystery, wrapped in a social and religious indictment. The novel’s atmosphere, while at times fuzzy and holiday-spirited, consistently gestures towards the holiday’s deeper moral stakes. The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction recipient, which got a screen adaptation in 2024 starring Cillian Murphy, is a great, compact read that allows reflection on the heavy ethical questions faced by the novella’s protagonist during the holidays.

WHERE TO FIND IT- You can find the eBook on Amazon and Kobo or listen to the audiobook on Audible.

Tags: