Tina 's Reviews > Small Things Like These

This is a profound little novella. The writing and narration is beautiful. It's a story set in Ireland in 1985 around Christmas time.

Bill Furlong is a hard working husband and father of five children. One day just before Christmas he is delivering coal around his sleepy village in Ireland when he encounters a girl in a shed on the compound of the local convent. She's cold and dirty and he discovers she has just given birth. He prepares to bring her to the Mother Superior for help. As he leaves the girl there he feels something is not right. He begins to think back to his childhood and how he was raised by an unwed mother. Now Furlong wrestles with his conscience and doing the right thing even if it goes against the beloved Catholic Church.

It's a beautiful and touching story that sheds light on some of Ireland's most darkest times yet it leaves you with some hope. That there are good people in the world who are willing to put themselves on the line to do the right thing.