The good news is that you can read this book digitally without breaking the law or risking a virus. Here is how:

The story follows Bill Furlong, a hardworking coal and timber merchant and father of five daughters, during the weeks leading up to Christmas in New Ross, Wexford. While making a delivery to the local convent, Bill discovers a young woman, Sarah Redmond, locked in a cold outbuilding. This encounter forces Bill to confront the town's open but unspoken secret: the convent is an abusive Magdalene laundry.

Keegan doesn’t need hundreds of pages to create a complex world. She uses precise, sparse prose to pack a massive punch. Reading Guide: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Notice the chill in that language. "Strange hats." "Too busy to pass the time of day." Keegan shows you the nuns’ cruelty through their absence of humanity, not through melodrama.

Claire Keegan wrote a book about a man who decides that small acts of decency matter. In your search for her book, make a similarly decent choice: honor her work by accessing it legally. The story of Bill Furlong will stay with you long after the last page—but only if you read it the right way.

Search your library’s Hoopla or Libby app for "Small Things Like These." You will get a perfectly formatted digital copy in minutes, for free, and you won’t have to worry about malware or guilt. That is the only PDF you need.

That single line does the work of a chapter. It hints at the Magdalene Laundries—Ireland’s real, horrific network of church-run workhouses where “fallen women” were imprisoned—without ever preaching. Keegan trusts the reader to feel the cold seep through the stone.

Before you click on any shady link for Small Things Like These , it is vital to understand the copyright status of the work. Claire Keegan is a living, working author. The book is published by Grove Press (US) and Faber & Faber (UK). It is not in the public domain.