Small Things Like These

Compact and quiet novella on the gift of empathy in hard life.

A couple days of an Irish coal delivery man. This is like an extended short-story, a couple hours read time, but lively and earnest. Although it doesn't go into them, look up the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland before you read; I'm sure the tension I felt was designed.

There's a very old Jewish teaching which says "whoever saves a life, saves an entire world." This gentle and reflective novella, in which nothing much happens and yet lives change, is a version of this, told through the details of the quiet life of a man in an Irish village.

Tightly told tale of small quotidian acts that build a strong conscious in a person. Beautiful story.

Powerful little book. A compelling view of things through the eyes (and heart and mind) of Bill Furlong, a surprisingly sensitive man fighting against complicity. I enjoyed the descriptions of the crows at several points in the story. I both read and listened to the book (about 50-50) and thought the audiobook narration by Aidan Kelly was good.