Small Things Like These

　　2022布克獎決選名單，關於當年抹大拉洗衣房的黑暗歷史
　　這愛爾蘭土地上的故事，超越空間和時間，觸及人心
 
　　1985年的冬天，隨著代表著美好的聖誕節越來越近，生意最旺的這個時間點，Bill Furlong卻發現自己漸漸困在一種不滿足的情緒裡。作為一個成功的煤炭兼木柴商人，和妻子與五個可愛的女兒居住在愛爾蘭東南的小鎮裡，旁人看來幸福美滿。然而從小作為未成年未婚女性的孩子，自始至終不知道生父是誰的心結，始終縈繞於心。如今步入中年的他總是想著：「人生最終就是如此了嗎？難道不會再有任何變化？」然而當這天，Bill一如往常將訂單送往當地那間修女修道院時，他即將目擊的事件，將打亂他平靜如水的生活，並翻出Bill過往那不願面對的真相。(文／博客來外文館)

Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize

＂A hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time.＂ --Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers

Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan’s landmark new novel, a 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 faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

An international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.

CLAIRE KEEGAN was raised on a farm in Ireland. Her stories have won numerous awards and are translated into more than twenty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and was chosen as a Los Angeles Times Book of the Year. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster, after winning the Davy Byrnes Award--then the world’s richest prize for a story--was recently selected by The Times UK as one of the top 50 novels to be published in the 21st century. Her stories have been published in the New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, and Best American Stories. Keegan is now holding the Briena Staunton Fellowship at Pembroke College, Cambridge.