Small Things Like These

From Joseph Badaracco, John Shad Professor of Business Ethics at Harvard Business School

“Small Things Like These” first seems to be a short, modest novel about an ordinary coal merchant in 1980s Ireland. But the merchant, Bill Furlong, discovers a young girl being badly mistreated at a convent laundry, and he then has to confront the truth about the notorious Magdalene Laundries, his community’s collective silence and his own moral responsibility. Through Furlong’s quiet deliberations, the story asks us about our responsibilities when injustice is in plain sight and there are significant risks and constraints on doing what is right.