A Family Matter

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.


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
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
'I was so moved and humbled by this beautifully crafted novel ... captures the heart-gripping consequences of forbidden love'
Mary Beth Keane
'A beautifully written, quiet yet devastating rebuke to an era of cruel prejudice, A Family Matter made me weep like a baby.'
Emma Donoghue

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
5.0
5.0
Heartbreaking and stunning
nottoobusy 20/10/2025

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