Characters
The coal and timber merchant and protagonist who struggles with a moral crisis in 1985 Ireland.
Who is Bill Furlong?
The novel takes place in this Irish town where "chimneys threw out smoke" along the quays.
What is New Ross?
Bill finds Sarah locked in this freezing location while delivering a late order of fuel.
What is the coal shed?
This noun describes the state of being no longer needed or useful; Bill fears this economic fate for his family.
What is redundancy?
Where is the Louvre Museum located?
Paris, France
This Protestant widow saved Furlong’s mother from hardship and raised Bill "under her wing."
Who is Mrs. Wilson?
The narrative is set during the cold, wet December of this specific year.
What is 1985?
The Mother Superior uses this gift to ensure Furlong’s silence.
What is fifty pounds?
This adjective describes someone who is not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed.
What is incorrigible?
What was the first Pixar movie?
Toy Story
Bill’s wife who believes they must "ignore" certain things to "stay on the right side of people."
Who is Eileen Furlong?
These Catholic institutions, run in concert with the State, incarcerated "unmarried girls" for forced labor.
What are the Magdalen Laundries?
This character feeds the workers in the town and warns Bill that the nuns have a "finger in every pie" and can damage his daughters' futures.
Who is Mrs. Kehoe?
Meaning moderate or self-restrained; Bill’s lifestyle is often described as this.
What is temperate?
In which year did World War II end?
1945
The "shut-down" girl Bill discovers in a coal shed who asks him to help her find her 14-week-old baby.
Who is Sarah Redmond?
This is the "only good school" for girls in town, which is separated from the laundry by a single wall.
What is St. Margaret’s?
Mother Superior dismisses Sarah’s traumatic night in the shed as a "big nothing" and a game of this.
What is hide and seek?
A term meaning to be assigned to an unpleasant place or situation, much like the girls in the laundry.
What is consigned?
What occasion corresponds with the longest day of the year?
The summer solstice
The humble farmhand who showed Bill "daily grace" and was likely his father.
Who is Ned?
This body of water is described as being "dark as stout" and carries a legend of a monk's curse.
What is the River Barrow?
Why does Furlong feel like a "hypocrite" for attending Mass after his first visit to the convent?
Answers may vary
This noun refers to a self-inflicted punishment undergone in token of sorrow for sin.
What is penance?
What is the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet?
Delta