Do you agree with her idea that they ought to just “soldier on?”Ħ. Discuss her reaction to Furlong’s prolonged anxiety. Giving away what change is in your pocket,” she says to him in bed, the night he returns from the Magdalene Laundries. What role does religion play in this novel?ĥ.

After first meeting Sarah, Furlong sits alone in his truck before going “like a hypocrite, to mass.” As her author note indicates, the Magdalene Laundries, where Sarah lives, were funded by both the Irish State and the Catholic Church. Why do you think Claire Keegan chose to make the narrative so compact? How does the short sprint toward Christmas add to the climax of the novel?Ĥ. Small Things Like These occurs in just a few short weeks. Why do you think Claire Keegan chose this man for her protagonist? What special insight do you think Furlong has that encourages his decision to return to the coal shed?ģ.

Furlong grew up poor and provides for his family what he lacked as a child.

What would life be like, he wondered, if they were given time to think and to reflect over things?” How do the events that follow echo this meditation from Furlong?Ģ. “Always it was the same … they carried mechanically on, without pause, to the next job at hand. Early in the novel, Furlong reflects on the movements of his family as they prepare for Christmas dinner.

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