Welcome to the Book Review Book Club! Every month, we select a book to discuss with our readers. Sometimes that’s a new book we’re excited about and would love to introduce you to; other times, it’s an older book that’s back in the cultural spotlight.

What do all of our selections have in common? They’re great reads primed for robust, thoughtful conversations. Last month, we read “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” by Gabriel García Márquez.

For many, the idea of Christmas invokes images of snowy hills, twinkling lights, warm meals and cozy fires. Claire Keegan’s 2021 novella, “Small Things Like These,” features all of that and two additional elements: a horrifying local discovery and a life changing crisis of conscious.

The book, which was a finalist for the Booker Prize, is set in a small Irish town in 1985. We follow Bill Furlong, a husband and coal merchant who is preparing for the holiday with his wife and children. He’s in an especially meditative state because Christmas makes him think of his mother, who was kicked out of her family’s house after getting pregnant with Bill when she was 16. The only way mother and son were able to survive was thanks to the kindness and care of a generous neighbor.

As he makes his holiday delivery rounds, Bill is lost in reflection, ruminating over his troubled past and the question of how to provide for his daughters. Then he stumbles on a terrible scene at a local convent, one that will cause him to confront what he believed about his community and whether he has the ability, and will, to fix it.