Simple. Beautiful. Sad. Hopeful. Poetic.

These are the words that come to mind after reading Small Things like These. Doesn’t that summarize many an Irish work of art?

This beautiful historical fiction novella (110 pages, reads in less than an hour) tells about Bill Furlong, a coal merchant in Ireland in 1985, who at Christmas time, faces a moral challenge when discovering the mistreatment of women in a Magdalene laundry.

It leaves you with a personal affliction about turning a blind eye. And a desire to listen to Glen Hansard and plunge more into Irish art.