Little things like that

BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE

It's 1985, and we're in a town in Ireland. Christmas is approaching, a busy time for Bill Furlong, a supplier of wood and coal. Early one morning, he delivers an order to the local monastery – and is confronted by the darkness and complicit silence of a town under the control of the church.

In a small town in Ireland, Bill Furlong tries to fill his customers' orders as the year draws to a close. At the helm of a small company and father of five daughters, he has managed to make a life for himself. His mother, a maid, became pregnant at fifteen but, unlike what usually happened, she was not thrown out of the house with her baby. In this respect, Bill was luckier than other children. On Christmas Eve Bill makes his final delivery to the convent – ​​where, under the guise of educating them, the nuns take advantage of girls of "loose morals" and put them to work in the convent's laundry. What Bill discovers there, and the difficult decision to which they lead him, are narrated by the author with such restrained grace that this beautiful text becomes both enigmatic and disturbing.

A work of art that was rightly praised by critics.

WRITE THE GUY
The meticulous attention to detail in characters, setting, memory, and dramatic moments creates a story you'll want to read again and again. Her deceptively simple language is flawless.
Boston Globe

This excellent short story somehow defies the gravity of the subject matter and transcends the everyday, bright present. Details come to life with supernatural clarity. The white light of a winter afternoon, the mist over a river, a woman opening the door of an oven, a child grasping his father's hand: we see these images and feel their persistent presence as we enter the life of a simple man in an ordinary place.
Wall Street Journal

Keegan is the goddess of small things. Her ability to create entire worlds with just a few words, an entire relationship through just a few interactions, is nothing short of miraculous. Little Things Like These reassures us that we are all capable of doing the right thing, and that kindness, like misery, is contagious. This is a literary state of grace.
Herald

The writer and book critic Kostas V. Katsoularis presents the book and shares his thoughts and impressions after reading it, while the actress Gogo Brebou reads excerpts (3/12/2022).
Listen to the podcast.


Main category: Foreign literature
Subcategory: Contemporary
Book Series:
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Form pages: 128
Dimensions: 13 x 20
Weight: 0.21 kg
Cover Type: Paperback
Excerpt: https://flip.metaixmio.gr/apospasmata/MIKRA_PRAGMATA_SAN_KI_AYTA/index.html