Claire Keegan's novella Small Things Like These wins 2022 Orwell Prize for political fiction
CBC Books | | Posted: July 15, 2022 12:23 PM | Last Updated: July 15, 2022
Claire Keegan's novella Small Things Like These has won this year's Orwell Prize for political fiction.
The Orwell Prize for political fiction is a £3,000 (approx. $4,640.84 Cdn) award that was launched in 2019. It is a companion to the Orwell Prize for political writing, the Orwell Prize for journalism and the Orwell Prize for exposing Britain's social evils.
The Orwell Prizes 2022 were presented in an awards gala on Thursday, July 14 in London.
Set in Ireland in the mid-1980s, Small Things Like These is a moving tale of faith, forgiveness and the authority of the Catholic Church. The book's protagonist, Bill Furlong, is faced with a moral dilemma when he discovers a shivering, ragged girl locked in the shed of a local convent.
Small Things Like These was also a 2022 Rathbones Folio Prize finalist for the best literary work of the year.
"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 jury said in a statement.
"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."
Keegan is the Irish author of prize-winning short fiction, including two story collections, Antarctica and Walk the Blue Fields.
In a recent interview with Writers and Company's Eleanor Wachtel, Keegan said Small Things Like These explores moral philosophy, human decency and the authority of organized religion.
"People were hugely brutalized in this country by the Catholic Church. They were so far removed from any type of decency, they didn't even know what decency was anymore. And they were also rewarded financially for it," said Keegan.
"People get lost morally — and I mean truly lost. And then they hide behind a screen of morality which the church gives you to wear. It's very powerful. People become afraid of you, and look up to you."
LISTEN | Claire Keegan on Writers and Company:
The Orwell Prize for political writing went to the book The Fourth Time, We Drowned by Irish author Sally Hayden. The nonfiction work examines the migrant crisis across North Africa and the experiences of refugees fleeing dictatorships, violence, persecution and war.
"Hayden's reporting is an extraordinary exploration of a modern reality using modern means: truly a book of our times. While many people seeking refuge from the terrible logics of repression, war and poverty cannot easily cross frontiers, phone and Facebook messages can," the jury said in a statement.
"Both Sally Hayden and Claire Keegan have, in very different ways, written gripping stories about things that should alarm us: there are awful truths right at the heart of our societies and systems. However, in their wit, elegance and compassion, these powerful winning books also help us think about the choices we make, and how to make the future better. Orwell would be proud," said Jean Seaton, the director of The Orwell Foundation, of the 2022 book prizes.
This year's Orwell Prize for journalism went to the Guardian journalist George Monbiot.
Ed Thomas won this year's prize for exposing Britain's social evils for his work on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in the U.K. for BBC News.