It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. 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.
The long-awaited new work from the author of Foster, Small Things Like These is an unforgettable story of hope, quiet heroism and tenderness.
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Set in a small Irish town during the weeks leading up to Christmas in 1985, Small Things Like These follows Bill Furlong, a quiet, hardworking coal and timber merchant. As a dedicated family man with a wife and five daughters, Furlong spends his days navigating the grueling demands of the winter season while quietly reflecting on the fragile nature of his own stable life. The town is tightly bound by economic hardships and deeply controlled by the local Catholic parish and its convent, which runs a training school for young girls.
While making a routine delivery to the convent, Furlong accidentally stumbles upon a disturbing discovery that forces him to confront the dark secrets hidden behind its walls. This encounter shatters his quiet routine and plunges him into a profound moral crisis. He is forced to choose between the safety of keeping silent to protect his family's standing in a small community or listening to his conscience and acting against a powerful, unchecked institution.
Ultimately, the story is a masterfully restrained exploration of complicity, quiet heroism, and the immense weight of small acts of everyday empathy.
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A concise view of the book’s strongest literary signals and the reading interests shared by people connected to it on bks.social.
G-NRIS™ identifies Small things like these primarily as Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, and Drama. Its strongest themes include Moral Courage, Complicity and Silence, Humanity and Compassion, Religious Influence, and Memory and the Past. Prominent narrative patterns include Small Town Setting, Quiet Resistance, Christmas Setting, and Everyman Protagonist.
Readers connected to this book most often reflect Psychological Moral Explorer and Historical Literary Reader reader archetypes. Their strongest shared genre interests include Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, and Thriller. They are commonly drawn to themes such as Understanding Human Nature, gaming, technology, and Seeking Dark Psychological Tension.
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