Book guide
Small Things Like These
In a small Irish town at Christmas in 1985, a coal merchant is forced to confront buried truths and a community’s silence.
GenresHistoricalLiterary
Genre and trope pairingsHistoricalRedemptionHistoricalResistanceHistoricalClass divideLiterarySmall townLiterarySelf-discoveryLiteraryFamily secretsLiteraryIntergenerational traumaLiterarySocial commentary
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About Small Things Like These
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.
Reading signals
- Spice
- None
- Darkness
- Dark
- Pacing
- Slow
Content warnings
- religious control
- institutional silence
- child abuse
- forced institutionalization
- confinement
- emotional abuse
- physical abuse
- religious bigotry
- coerced adoption
- suicidal thoughts (minor character)
