Oprah Winfrey Chats With Book Club Author Claire Keegan On Misogyny and Healing in “Small Things Like These”

Claire Keegan’s novel, Small Things Like These, is Oprah Winfrey’s latest book club pick and it features a lot to talk about.

The Irish author spoke with Winfrey on Dec. 3, as part of the TV personality's newest endeavor, The Oprah Podcast. The show features conversations between Winfrey and authors chosen as part her book club.

The novel follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant who grapples with the morals of his small Ireland town after he meets a woman from the Magdalene laundries in 1985. The institution, run by the Catholic Church, forced women into unpaid labor as punishment for moral code violations.

“I didn't have any relative or anybody I knew in the laundries,” Keegan said, of writing the novel. “It was just all over the news for a long time in Ireland. And I think the question I was interested in was, why did people do nothing when the police knew, the social workers knew and the parents knew. The Catholic church knew, the priests knew, the nuns knew and nobody did anything.”

“I wasn't able to not ask the question while I was writing,” Keegan added. "Really, I think the book is a response to my asking the question.”

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The episode also featured guest Maureen Sullivan, who was sent to the Magdalene laundries when she was 12 years old after telling a teacher that her stepfather physically and sexually abused her. Sullivan published her memoir about her experiences in 2023, titled Girl in the Tunnel, and Keegan spoke to her feelings about her own novel empowering women to step forward.

“I'm just delighted to have had the opportunity to write the book and be heard and to say something about misogynistic Ireland,” Keegan said. “Because one of the things I know about the misogynist is that he wants to shut you up. Verbally and physically.”

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“In Maureen's case, obviously, she was incarcerated,” Keegan added. "So it was lovely to be able to come out the far side of that, and use my voice and use my power to be able to say something.”

The new Book Club podcast episodes are presented by Starbucks. The author interviews are filmed in Starbucks cafes and paired with a special beverage (Small Things Like These’s drink features the Starbucks Christmas blend). The novel was also adapted into a film starring Oscar winner Cillian Murphy.

Keegan is also the acclaimed author of books Foster and So Late in the Day. But for readers coming to Small Things for the first time, Keegan shared that she doesn’t have one particular message she hopes people take away.

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“I think reading a book is a really personal thing,” the author said. “Whatever you take away from it is alright ... Maybe there were cleverer ways to get done what he got done. Maybe it's a story about love. Maybe it's a story about a marriage falling apart. Maybe it's a story about a man breaking down.”

“Whatever it is, is alright, because I think your response to a book is deeply personal and shouldn't be interfered with,” Keegan added. “I think the reader completes the book.”

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