Bill Furlong’s mother had worked as a maid at the Wilson home in the small town of New Ross Ireland. One summer his mother had become pregnant and her family disowned her. But Mrs.Wilson took her mother in, and raised Bill as her own child.

This story begins with Furlong running a successful business delivering coal and lumber, happily married and father of fiver girls. This wisp of a novel takes us through his hard-working life and the routine and the small pleasures of his life.

This is also a story of the Magdalene Laundries, of which I only learned upon reading this book. Founded to help “fallen women”, or simply women with no families to support them, many became work-houses where girls were forced to labor long hours with no pay and under wretched conditions, run by Catholic nuns. Thousands of infants were killed, and a mass grave was discovered in 1993 which finally resulted in the UN Committee for the Rights of Children to demand a government investigation. The last Laundry in Ireland was closed in 1996.

Furlong’s encounter with the Laundry and his personal journey related to what he discovers there, is the spare but moving story of this book. I give Small Things Like These 4.5👍 out of 5👍.