Small book, big story

Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan

by Liz Treacher, Author

If you enjoy books that plunge you into a different time and place, then look no further than Small Things Like These (Faber, 2021) by Claire Keegan. Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, the novella charts an incident in the life of Furlong the coal merchant. Furlong’s story is only just over 100 pages long, but you will find yourself thinking about him long after you’ve finished reading it. 


It is winter, 1985 in the Irish town of New Ross. The shipyard has closed and young people in the town are leaving for London and America. Furlong is carrying out his last deliveries before Christmas.


‘Furlong had come from nothing. Less than nothing, some might say.’ An illegitimate child of a sixteen-year-old mother, Furlong was helped along in life by Mrs Wilson, the protestant widow that his mother worked for. Now manager of a coal yard, Furlong lives happily with his wife and daughters, yet as the festivities approach he finds himself feeling listless and disatisfied. Then a discovery in the coal shed of the local convent forces him to reasses what living as a Christain really means.


Warning, there is a glimpse into Ireland’s Magdalen laundries. However, although the plot touches on the harshness of those institutions, the story is ultimately uplifting.


This is a beautifully written book, descriptive in a very visual way. Claire Keegan invites us into the life of a quiet, kind man. We accompany him on his rounds, listening to his thoughts. We go with him to the barbers, to church, slowly getting to know him, taking him to our hearts.

Liz Treacher is a writer and teacher based in Dornoch. Her two romantic comedies (The Wrong Envelope and The Wrong Direction) are set in 1920 and tell the story of an impetuous artist and his determined post lady. Both titles are available to buy from Dornoch Bookshop.