Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction Praise for Small Things Like These : An NPR

"Books We Love" of 2021 selection A Chicago Public Library

"Best of the Best" of 2021 selection People Magazine ''s

"Book of the Week" A PublishersWeekly

"Holiday Gift Guide 2021" Selection

"At the opening of Small Things Like These ,one immediately senses that Keegan is breathing something vital into theseason''s most cherished tales, until, as gently as snow falling, her littlebook accrues the unmistakable aura of a classic... From the elements of this simple existence in aninconsequential town, Keegan has carved out a profoundly moving and universalstory... Small Things Like These reminds us that the real miracle in anyseason is courage. Get two copies: one to keep, one to give."-- Washington Post

"For all her earlier accolades, Small ThingsLike These , Keegan''s first novel, enters the world this month with theshocking force of a debut...Over what would amount to a couple of chapters inanother novel, Keegan manages to place her characters and her readers at thecenter of an essential human dilemma: Will we turn a blind eye to evil in ourmidst, or will we take some action against it, even if it consists of just onesmall thing? As Keegan''s concise, capacious new book demonstrates, little actscan lead to real change."-- Los Angeles Times

"Keegan''s precisely considered details aboutcharacter, setting, memory, and dramatic moment create a story you will want toread again and again. Her deceptively simple language is pitch-perfect."-- BostonGlobe

"This exquisite miniature of a novel somehowdefies the gravitational pull of its grim subject to hover in a quotidian,luminous present. Details materialize with preternatural clarity. The milkylight of a winter afternoon, mist on a river, a woman opening an oven door, achild taking her father''s hand: We see these things and feel their lingeringpresence as we are drawn into the life of an unassuming man in an unremarkableplace."-- The Wall Street Journal

"Claire Keegan...now gives us her best work yet. SmallThings Like These is a short, wrenching, thoroughly brilliant novelmapping the path of one man''s conscience, its torment and vacillation betweentwo courses of action. Either one bears a price...Spare and potent, this is aremarkable story." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A sparse, breathtaking perfect gem of a novel."-- People

" SmallThings Like These is a gem of a slim novel about a family man facedwith a moral decision... adeeply moving tale."-- Associated Press

"Keegancaptured and affected my whole attention. She draws a web of complicity aroundthe convent''s activities that is chillingly mundane and brutally true. Thesekinds of places existed not just because of the cruelty of the people who ranthem, but also because of the fear and selfishness of those who were willing toignore them. Stunning. Just stunning."-- CatherineWhelan, NPR

"The novel isn''t just aneloquent attack on [Magdalene] laundries, however. It is also a touchingChristmas tale, genuinely reminiscent of the festive stories of O Henry andCharles Dickens; a novel that has been seeped in sherry and served by thefireside...As soon as you pick the novel up, it''s all over. The monumental powerof Claire Keegan is that she can create these cuckoo-clock narratives whereevery single word seems to be a necessary contribution to the overall mechanismof the novel. She is all killer, no filler. ...How lucky we are to have Keegan, agenuine once-in-a-generation writer whose dedication to her craft is asmeticulous as it is masterly."-- The Times (UK)

"Keegan distils the years of suffering andtorture that went on across the country into a reed-slim moral tale of quietbut monumental devastation...Although concretely realist, and grounded in darksocial history, everything about this remarkable novella feels in some waymiraculous; from the parable-like impression of the story itself, whichculminates in an act of bravery and true Christian humanity, to the modest,measured beauty of Keegan''s prose...The clarity and truth of Keegan''s visionnever falters. The result is a truly exquisite, tenderly hopeful Christmas talein which compassion and altruism triumph over apathy and inertia."-- The Telegraph (UK)

"A feat of compression, concerned with thenature of goodness and the texture of everyday life. [A] snowglobe of a story thatfits a whole bustling, striving, yearning world into 114 finely wrought pages."-- TheSunday Times (UK)

"Keegan is the goddess of small things. Herability to conjure whole worlds from a few words; an entire relationship from ahandful of exchanges, is little short of miraculous. Small Things Like These assures us we are all capable of doing the right thing, andthat goodness, like misery, can be handed on from man to man. It is a literarystate of grace."-- The Herald (UK)

"A masterclass in light-touch,heart-stopping writing... Small Things Like These is gripping andsubtly emotionally charged from start to finish. Breathtaking."-- The SundayIndependent (Ireland)

"With Small Things Like These , Keeganpowerfully conjures up a prison, as observed from the perspective of one on theoutside looking in. A powerful, haunting drama, this novella is essentialreading in 2021."-- The Sunday Business Post (Ireland)

"This distinctly unfestive Christmas taleconfirms Keegan''s reputation as an exquisite literary miniaturist who makes a littlego a long way."-- The Daily Mail (UK)

"This isn''t a sentimental book. It''s a quiet one, in the wake of John McGahern or Colm Tóibín, populated by the awareness that ''if you want to get on in life, there''s some things you have to ignore, so you can keep on''. Keegan keeps the mood tight with a nice balance of internal reflection and external action, never going too far in either direction... Furlong [is] one of the subtlest but most memorable of recent characters in fiction." -- The Critic

"An Irishman uncovers abuse at a Magdalenlaundry in this compact and gripping novel....Keegan,a prizewinning Irish short story writer, says a great deal in very few words toextraordinary effect in this short novel. Despite the brevity of the text,Furlong''s emotional state is fully rendered and deeply affecting. Keegan alsocarefully crafts a web of complicity around the convent''s activities that isbelievably mundane and all the more chilling for it...A stunning feat ofstorytelling and moral clarity."-- Kirkus Reviews (starredreview)

"The latest from multi-award-winning Irishnovelist Keegan ( Antarctica ) indicts the social culture that enabledIreland''s Magdalene Laundries and brilliantly articulates a decent person''sstruggle of conscience... Keegan''s beautiful prose is quiet and precise,jewel-like in its clarity. Highly recommended."-- Library Journal (starredreview)

"Keegan''s psychologically astutecharacterizations subtly convey the dual pressures of culpability and fear feltby the faithful... A trenchant and plangent work asking at what cost does oneremain silent."-- Booklist

"This novel, which has all the trappings of aClaire Keegan story (small-town Ireland, a dark secret, a man with a burden tobear) is sure to be absolutely beloved by all who read it."-- Literary Hub

"Irish story writer Keegan''s gorgeously texturedsecond novella (after Foster ) centers on a family man who wants to dothe right thing...Keegan beautifully conveys Bill''s interior life as he returnsto the house where he was raised...It all leads to a bittersweet culmination, asort of anti- Christmas Carol , but to Bill it''s simply sweet. Readerswill be touched."-- Publishers Weekly

"There are many things I love about ClaireKeegan''s writing. Her way with place and atmosphere, her perfectly structuredstories, the fullness and generosity of the openings that narrow as time moveson and the options available to her characters seem to dwindle, bringing them(and us) to ends that are at once surprising and fated... All Keegan''s writing,including her long-awaited new novel, Small Things Like These , has thissame immersive, deeply considered quality."-- Sarah Gilmartin ,Irish Times