Reviews

3.5/5
Charming little novella set in 1980s Ireland. It’s bitterly cold at Christmas and Bill Furlong, the coal and timber merchant, cannot help but notice the increasing poverty as he makes his deliveries through the community. On one delivery to the local convent, he sees the mistreatment of the girls and unwed mothers who work the Magdalene laundry. How does he reckon with the sins and secrets of his church?

I read this on a sunny afternoon in May. It probably would have been cozier as a December read.

soffelz's review against another edition

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reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

cassiemartino's review against another edition

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4.0

every time i looked at the cover of this book i thought of that tweet that said "every book is called 'the tiny things we know to be small' or 'the darkest wife'"

anyway, this book was very small and tiny, but in good ways. it was small in a literal sense - only 100-some pages, great for me bc i'm currently in a hell of a reading slump lmao. Bill Furlong was such a fascinating character to me. the sort of things he experienced in the book seemed very realistic to me; he's just a normal guy doing the right thing, and there was something about that normality that made this book really resonate with me. additionally, i had heard of Magdalene laundries before, but only in passing and it was informative, yet really upsetting to learn more about this shitty abusive system through this one tiny, personal story

the ending was a liiiiiitle frustrating, bc i really wanted to know

how the family would react to Bill bringing home this poor girl from the laundry and how their lives might change due to that

. i totally get it though, leaving it open ended is probably the best in this particular situation.

really enjoyed this read. sometimes i think i need stories that focus on tiny small little things in people's lives like this - was a type of reading experience that was entirely new to me and i enjoyed it a lot