 | |
| Author | Claire Keegan |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Set in | 1980s Ireland |
| Publisher | Grove Press |
Publication date | 30 November 2021 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 128 |
| Awards | Orwell Prize |
| ISBN | 9780802158741 Hardcover edition |
| OCLC | 1271995923 |
Small Things like These is a historical fiction novel by Claire Keegan, published on 30 November 2021 by Grove Press. In 2022, the book won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, [1] and was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize [2] and the Booker Prize. [3]
"It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church." [4]
Small Things like These was generally well-received by critics [5] and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews [6] and Library Journal. [7]
Multiple reviewers commented on the moral storytelling, which comes across as "a sort of anti-Christmas Carol." [8] Kirkus called the book "[a] stunning feat of storytelling and moral clarity." [6] The Herald said the book "assures us we are all capable of doing the right thing, and that goodness, like misery, can be handed on from man to man." [9]
This depth of the book surprised some reviewers, given that Small Things like These is a quick read that could be considered a novella given its length. Associated Press noted, "Keegan's economy of prose is a marvel ... The book takes just an hour or so to read, but you still feel like you know Bill Furlong by the end and understand why he does what he does. His tale of quiet heroism doesn't require any more words." [10] A similar sentiment was echoed in the Los Angeles Times , who wrote, "Keegan, whose short stories contain unusual depth and grandeur, is the only contemporary writer who could manage the feat of a completely imagined, structured and sustained world with such brevity." [11]
Reviewers also highlighted Keegan's writing style. Keegan's prose was referred to as "surprisingly powerful," "languid and crystalline" [12] in Booklist , as well as "quiet and precise, jewel-like in its clarity" [7] in Library Journal. Further, the Financial Times noted, "Keegan has a keen ear for dialect without letting it overwhelm conversations," [13] and Damon Galgut wrote in The Times Literary Supplement : "Keegan knows how to weigh and pace her sentences, and her fine judgement delivers many subtle pleasures ... [she] fully exploits the power of understatement." [14]
Lamorna Ash, writing in The Guardian , noted that Small Things like These does "not feel quite as devastating, as lasting, as Keegan’s previous work[.] Perhaps, for the first time in her writing, the lightness here has become too light – is kept too far away from the darkness that lurks at the other side of the town." [15]
| Year | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Booker Prize | Shortlisted | [16] |
| Orwell Prize for Political Fiction | Won | [1] | |
| Rathbones Folio Prize | Shortlisted | [2] |
The Irish Independent reported in February 2023 that shooting locations for the film adaptation of the book were being sought. Actor Cillian Murphy is lined up to star in the film. [17] In January 2024, it was confirmed that Small Things like These will open the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival. [18]
Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor. He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 play Disco Pigs, a role he later reprised in the 2001 screen adaptation. His early film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later (2002), the dark comedy Intermission (2003), the thriller Red Eye (2005), the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and the science fiction thriller Sunshine (2007). He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination.
Of a Boy is a 2002 novel by Sonya Hartnett about a lonely and troubled youth.
Damon Galgut is a South African novelist and playwright. He was awarded the 2021 Booker Prize for his novel The Promise, having previously been shortlisted for the award in 2003 and 2010.
Claire Keegan is an Irish writer known for her short stories, which have been published in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Granta, and The Paris Review.
Megan Abbott is an American author of crime fiction and of non-fiction analyses of hardboiled crime fiction. Her novels and short stories have drawn from and re-worked classic subgenres of crime writing from a female perspective. She is also an American writer and producer of television.
TheWriters' Prize, previously known as the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Folio Prize and The Literature Prize, is a literary award that was sponsored by the London-based publisher The Folio Society for its first two years, 2014–2015. Starting in 2017, the sponsor was Rathbone Investment Management. At the 2023 award ceremony, it was announced that the prize was looking for new sponsorship as Rathbones would be ending their support. In November 2023, having failed to secure a replacement sponsor, the award's governing body announced its rebrand as The Writers' Prize.
Sara Baume is an Irish novelist. She was named on Granta magazine's "Best of Young British Novelists" list 2023.
How to Pronounce Knife is a short story collection by Souvankham Thammavongsa, published in 2020 by McClelland & Stewart. The stories in the collection centre principally on the experiences of Laotian Canadian immigrant families, sometimes from the perspective of children observing the world of adults.
Once Upon a Time in the East is a memoir by Chinese-born British Xiaolu Guo. The book is titled Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China in the United States.
The Sport of Kings is a 2016 novel by C. E. Morgan. It is a family saga about horse racing set in Kentucky and Ohio.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2021.
We Are Water Protectors is a 2020 picture book written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade. Written in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, the book tells the story of an Ojibwe girl who fights against an oil pipeline in an effort to protect the water supply of her people. It was published by Roaring Brook Press on March 17, 2020. The book was well received. Critics praised its message of environmental justice, its depiction of diversity, and the watercolor illustrations, for which Goade won the 2021 Caldecott Medal, becoming the first Indigenous recipient of the award. The book also received the 2021 Jane Addams Children's Book Award winner in the Books for Younger Children category.
The Promise is a 2021 novel by South African novelist Damon Galgut, published in May 2021, by Umuzi, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa. It was published by Europa Editions in the US and by Chatto & Windus in the UK.
Nora Webster is a historical novel by Colm Tóibín, published October 7, 2014 by Scribner. The story is set in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, and in Brooklyn, New York in the middle of the 20th century.
Unsettled Ground is a novel by Claire Fuller, published May 18, 2021 by Tin House Books.
Going Down Home with Daddy is a 2019 picture book written by Kelly Starling Lyons and illustrated by Daniel Minter. It tells the story of a young boy who attends a large family reunion at his great-grandmother's house and struggles to prepare a contribution to the family celebration. Inspired by Lyons's visit to a family gathering in rural Georgia, the book was published by Peachtree Publishing on April 1, 2019. The acrylic illustrations incorporate Adinkra symbols representing various concepts in Ghanaian culture. Critics praised the book's themes of family culture and heritage as well as Minter's illustrations, for which it received a Caldecott Honor in 2020. It also received the 2019 Lupine Award in the Picture Book category.
The Animals in That Country is a 2020 novel by Laura Jean McKay, published by Scribe. The novel won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2020), Arthur C. Clarke Award (2021), Victorian Prize for Literature (2021), and Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction (2021).
Small Things like These is a 2024 historical drama film directed by Tim Mielants and adapted by Enda Walsh from the 2021 novel of the same name by Claire Keegan, and starring Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Emily Watson, Clare Dunne, and Helen Behan. The film is an international co-production between Ireland and Belgium. Its storyline focuses on Ireland's infamous Magdalene laundries.
God's Children Are Little Broken Things was a short story collection written by Nigerian author Arinze Ifeakandu and published by A Public Space in 2022. It provides nine distinct "stories about the joys and tribulations of queer love in contemporary Nigeria".
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
