Ireland 1981. Nine-year-old Cáit counters the adversities of a life in poverty on the countryside with a quiet retreat into her own world: She is a sensitive observer of the beauty of the small things around her. When she is sent from her overwhelmed, often emotionally cold extended family to an older, childless couple during the holidays, she experiences deep affection, perhaps for the first time ever.

Destined to be a modern classic from “an original and a canonical presence in Irish fiction” (Colm Tóibín), Small Things Like These is Claire Keegan’s landmark new novel, the tale of one man’s courage — and a remarkable portrait of love and family. It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, who is father to five girls, faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery that forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. Already a bestseller in France and certain to be read worldwide for generations to come, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting and inspiring story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically celebrated and iconic writers.