SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE by Claire Keegan

Why are so many atrocities committed in the name of religion?  I was not familiar with the Irish Magdalene Laundries until I read this book, and I still can’t believe they existed until the 1990s.  In this spare but heartrending novel, Bill Furlong, an Irish businessman, sees the Laundries’ child abuse up-close-and-personal when he discovers a girl freezing in the local convent’s coal shed.  Shocked and dismayed and uncertain how to respond, he goes on about his work, tortured by what he has witnessed.  He learns that his fellow villagers, including his wife, insist on turning a blind eye, afraid to rock the boat or wage a battle against the Catholic Church or even acknowledge the cruelty that is taking place right under their noses.  Many of the young girls who are basically slaves at the convent have been placed there because they became pregnant out of wedlock.  Furlong is especially sensitive to their plight, as his mother was an unwed mother herself but escaped a similar fate due to the kindness of her employer.  The main question, then, is will he assuage his conscience, or will he stick with the status quo.  This book brought to mind Paulette Jiles’ News of the World, which I loved, but this book is more chilling, because these institutions actually existed, as did the apathy that allowed them to endure for centuries.