Our Book of the Week, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan has just been awarded the prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The judges said, "The focus of this novella is close, precise and unwavering: a beautifully written evocation of Ireland in the 1980s, precisely rendered; of a good man and his ordinary life; and of the decision he makes that unlocks major, present questions about social care, women’s lives and collective morality. The very tightness of focus, and Keegan’s marvellous control of her instrument as a writer, makes for a story at once intensely particular and powerfully resonant."

>>The author reads from the book. 
>>Between happiness and ruin. 

>>Caoillian and Claire.
>>The horrors of the Magdalene laundries. 

>>As long as it needs to be. 
>>"Exquisitely observed."

>>On drama versus tension. 

>>Winning the Orwell Prize. 

>>Get your copy. 
>>Other books short-listed for the Orwell Prizes.