Book Club: "Small Things Like These," by Claire Keegan
The Book Review20 Dec 2024

Book Club: "Small Things Like These," by Claire Keegan

Clare Keegan's slim 2021 novella about one Irishman's crisis of conscience during the Christmas season, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has also been adapted into a film starring Cillian Murphy. In this week’s episode, MJ Franklin discusses the book with his colleagues Joumana Khatib, Lauren Christensen, and Elisabeth Egan.

Keegan's book was also one of The New York Times Book Review's 100 best books of the 21st century. As we wrote, "Not a word is wasted in Keegan’s small, burnished gem of a novel, a sort of Dickensian miniature centered on the son of an unwed mother who has grown up to become a respectable coal and timber merchant with a family of his own in 1985 Ireland. Moralistically, though, it might as well be the Middle Ages as he reckons with the ongoing sins of the Catholic Church and the everyday tragedies wrought by repression, fear and rank hypocrisy."


Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Avsnitt(585)

Colum McCann on Undersea Cables and His New Novel "Twist"

Colum McCann on Undersea Cables and His New Novel "Twist"

In his new novel, “Twist,” the National Book Award-winning Irish writer Colum McCann tells the story of a journalist deep at sea in more ways then one: A man adrift, he accepts a magazine assignment t...

4 Apr 202537min

Book Club: Let's Talk About "We Do Not Part," by Han Kang

Book Club: Let's Talk About "We Do Not Part," by Han Kang

The novel “We Do Not Part,” by the Nobel laureate Han Kang, involves a pet-sitting quest gone surreal: It follows a writer and documentarian whose hospitalized friend beseeches her to take care of her...

28 Mars 202549min

Steven Soderbergh on His Reading Life (Rerun)

Steven Soderbergh on His Reading Life (Rerun)

The director Steven Soderbergh has just released his second film of 2025: the spy thriller "Black Bag," starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. In January 2024, Soderbergh spoke with host Gilb...

21 Mars 202542min

Spring Preview: A Few Books We're Excited For

Spring Preview: A Few Books We're Excited For

Every season brings its share of books to look forward to, and this spring is no different. Host Gilbert Cruz is joined by Book Review editor Joumana Khatib to talk about a dozen or so titles that sou...

7 Mars 202531min

Book Club: Let's Talk About "Orbital," by Samantha Harvey

Book Club: Let's Talk About "Orbital," by Samantha Harvey

Samantha Harvey’s novel “Orbital,” which won the Booker Prize last year, has a tight, poetic frame: We follow one day in the lives of six people working on a space station above Earth, orbiting the pl...

28 Feb 202541min

Celebrating 100 Years of Edward Gorey

Celebrating 100 Years of Edward Gorey

You’re familiar with Edward Gorey, whether you know it or not. The prolific author and illustrator, who was born 100 years ago this week, was ubiquitous for a time in the 1970s and 1980s, and his elab...

21 Feb 202535min

Inside the Making of ‘Wicked’

Inside the Making of ‘Wicked’

One day, several decades ago, the writer Winnie Holzman was shopping in a Manhattan bookstore where a particular cover caught her eye. It showed a woman with a green face, a black hat pulled down over...

19 Feb 202526min

Adapting the Twists and Turns of ‘Conclave’

Adapting the Twists and Turns of ‘Conclave’

The screenwriter Peter Straughan has become adept at taking well known — and beloved — books and adapting them for the big and small screens. He was first nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay of ...

14 Feb 202523min

Populärt inom Fritid

somna-med-henrik
uggla-ugglas-podcast
man-i-grupp
svenska-fpl-podden
roda-vita-rosen
elbilsveckan
rss-livsreglerna
billgren-wood
travpodden
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
jordkommissionen
rss-vara-klassiker
sexet
rss-horrujeje
rss-speljuntan
rss-okrystat
rss-algjagare-emellan
rss-odla
nordigt
spokhistorier