X-Book

A Family Matter

Click Buy to Log in and see personalised pricing.

Send as a gift Get in the xigxag app
How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

**Winner of the Nero Book Awards Gold Prize Book of the Year 2025**

A mother following her heart
A father with the law on his side
A child caught in the middle

It’s 2022, and Heron, an old man of quiet habits, has just had the sort of visit to the doctor that turns a life upside down. Sharing the diagnosis with Maggie, his only daughter, seems impossible. Heron just can’t find the words to tell her about it, or any of the other things he’s been protecting her from for so long.

It’s 1982, and Dawn is a young wife and mother penned in by the expectations of her time and place. Then Hazel comes into her life like a torch in the dark. It’s the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly Dawn’s world is more joyful, and more complicated, than she ever expected. But Dawn has responsibilities, she has commitments: Dawn has Maggie.

A Family Matter is an immersive and tender debut, at once heart-breaking and hopeful, that asks how we might heal from the wounds of the past, and what we might learn from them.


© Claire Lynch 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

'Lynch’s debut burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing.'
New York Times
Affecting... Distilling sadness and hope , Lynch movingly weighs the gifts and costs of the era into which a person is born
Mail on Sunday
'I was caught up from the first page, and completely taken aback by this story of restraint and 'civilised' behaviour, and things unsaid. I loved it’
Clare Chambers
‘A wonderful novel: profoundly sad but also absolutely gripping… it manages to be damning about a culture and a system whilst being compassionate towards the human beings pitted against each other inside that system’
Mark Haddon
'A beautiful and tender exploration of parental love, prejudice and the things we carry that we don’t even fully understand; the terrible decisions made in ignorance, and the almost unbearable consequences'
Rachel Joyce
Gorgeous writing, beautifully told. From the first lines I was caught up in this family's net, the half-truths, the lies, and the love
Claire Fuller
Explores love and loss, intimacy and justice, custody and care…it’s brilliant, I couldn’t put it down
Woman's Hour
I smiled. I cried. I raged. Claire Lynch has written an un-put-downable novel, and I want everyone to read it. Lynch takes part of our recent history of shame and stigma, and makes it real and beautiful and moving and challenging. Every page sings out with empathy and love, pain and honesty. And the writing - so precise, so deceptively simple, so beautiful in its tiny moments - makes the pages speed by. This book will make you look differently at the world.'
Emilie Pine
'To tackle heart-wrenching emotion with such precision and restraint takes one hell of a talent. An impeccable debut that takes the mess of life and turns it into something quite beautiful. A timely reminder of love’s redemptive power. I was blown away by this novel.'
Lotte Jeffs
I’m full of admiration for this novel, which strikes the satisfying balance of being both quietly observed and deeply felt. It’s an intimate portrait of expectation, love and restraint written with great sensitivity and warmth. I adored it.'
Chloe Ashby

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
Author Claire Lynch
Narrator Miranda Raison
Duration 4 hours and 41 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529946444
Format Audiobook
Publisher Random House
Genre Family life fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Interior life, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Social issues
Collections Hear Her Voice, LGBTQ+, Set In The 80s
Availability AU, GB, IE
Rating
5.0 (2 reviews)
Narration
5.0 (2 reviews)

More from the same

Author

Narrator

About xigxag

xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.

There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.

Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.

Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.