This
is a short but incredibly powerful novel. Its subject is the power and iron-fisted control the Catholic church has
had for years over the Irish people, even in the face of corruption and abuse in church-run orphanages and homes for unwed
mothers.
The book is also about the
morality of a small town in which the local people fear speaking out against
the abuses they know are being committed at the convent home for unwed mothers
because of the possible repercussions for their own lives. But one man with a powerful conscience and
daughters of his own risks his future to expose how horribly the girls in the
convent home are being treated.
What
stands out about Claire Keegan’s writing is the spare simplicity of her prose,
the serenity of her authorial voice, and her ability to convey human emotion
with just a few deft strokes. At many
points in this book, I forgot I was reading, so powerfully Keegan draws me
into her world. The story deeply moved me. I cannot recommend this
book highly enough.
"A hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time." —Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers
Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him…
The Australian writer Helen Garner has been publishing for nearly 50
years but only recently has her work taken off in the United States. I had never heard of her until a friend gave
me one of Garner’s published diaries,
and as I read I wondered why I had never heard of her.
It’s an absolute pleasure reading her honest,
witty, intelligent take on her world and her often amusing, painful encounters with colleagues, family, and strangers. She has an exceptional eye for the small details
that make life rich, the quirks and traits in other people that make them
compelling or objectionable or funny.
Garner vividly brings her world into your living room. I particularly admire the honesty with which
she writes about herself, her own failings and weaknesses, because she manages
to make the personal universal. Read
this book and you’ll likely recognize aspects of yourself in Garner’s words.
Finally, Helen Garner has opened her diaries and invited readers into the world behind her novels and works of non-fiction. Recorded with frankness, humour and steel-sharp wit, these accounts of her everyday life provide an intimate insight into the work of one of Australia’s greatest living writers.
Yellow Notebook, Diaries Volume I, in this new paperback edition, spans about a decade beginning in the late 1970s just after the publication of her first novel, Monkey Grip. It will delight Garner fans and those new to her work alike.
This
is a wonderfully lively and revealing investigation into the life and work of Anton
Chekhov. The book is also partly the
story of Janet Malcolm’s pilgrimage to the cities in Russia where
Chekhov lived and worked.
Her reading
of Chekhov’s work is complemented by events from Chekhov’s personal life and
letters. I have been a fan of Janet
Malcolm for years because I’m captivated by her searing intelligence, her keen
eye, and her ironic wit.
On her
pilgrimage to Russia, Malcolm’s complicated relationship with her controlling Russian
guide offers some truly hilarious moments.
To illuminate the mysterious greatness of Anton Chekhov’s writings, Janet Malcolm takes on three roles: literary critic, biographer, and journalist. Her close readings of the stories and plays are interwoven with episodes from Chekhov’s life and framed by an account of Malcolm’s journey to St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Yalta. She writes of Chekhov’s childhood, his relationships, his travels, his early success, and his self-imposed “exile”—always with an eye to connecting them to themes and characters in his work. Lovers of Chekhov as well as those new to his work will be transfixed by Reading Chekhov.
In the
tradition of Oliver Sacks' The Island of the Colorblind, Rosemary
Mahoney tells the story of Braille Without Borders, the first school for blind students in Tibet, and of Sabriye Tenberken, the remarkable blind woman who
founded the school.
Fascinated and impressed by what she learned from the blind
children of Tibet, Mahoney was moved to investigate further the cultural
history of blindness. As part of her research, she spent three months teaching
at Tenberken's international training center for blind adults in Kerala, India.
This experience reveals the shocking oppression endured by the world's
blind and their remarkable resilience, integrity, ingenuity, and strength. After reading For the Benefit of Those Who See, you will never see the world in quite the same way again.
