Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Furlong and his wife Eileen have just enough money to keep their family going

Keegan captures a particular time and place, while also setting out the stakes. Detailed, insightful and written with striking economy of language, it gets the reader remarkably close to the experience of the character, recalling Faulkner's line about the best fiction being truer than fact. Small Things Like These brings a fresh and sensitive perspective to an awful period in our collective history. Magdalene laundries, the incarceration of women, babies stolen, or worse, the rights of so many thousands denied over decades. The Wexford author's unsentimental, unshowy style seems a perfect fit for a story that pits one man against the power of the Catholic Church. He goes quietly about his business, in a way that will be familiar to fans of Keegan. Like the rest of the town, he has plenty of worries, but over the course of this short, masterful novel it is his concern for the welfare of strangers that sets him apart.įurlong is a hero in the classical sense, flawed and afraid, but ultimately noble. Furlong, a coal and timber merchant in New Ross, Wexford, has a wife and five daughters to support. The year is 1985, the country gripped by recession. Shop Manager Claire Harris and Partnerships Manager Tara Spinks joined the bookshop team before opening and are supported by Children’s Buyer Caroline Eade and Booksellers Christy Matthews and Ella Wright.“Something small and hard gathered in his throat then which he tried but felt unable to say or swallow.” Bill Furlong, the protagonist of Claire Keegan’s highly anticipated new novel, is the kind of man who lies awake at night reflecting on the small things.

Every book stocked has its place because somebody loves and recommends it. The core stock was assembled by canvassing hundreds of readers – writers, publishing contacts, and friends (both adults and children) about which books they would most like to find in a bookshop.

The emphasis for the curation of the bookshop is on excellence in writing and narrative across a broad range of genres. Lutyens and Rubinstein Bookshop was founded in 2009 by literary agents Sarah Lutyens and Felicity Rubinstein. In this episode, I chat with Claire Harris, manager of Lutyens and Rubinstein Bookshop, about how the demographics of Notting Hill affect the curation of the bookshop, their bespoke services, independent stores in the area, and books!

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan