A Family Matter cover art

A Family Matter

 Preview

Get 30 days of Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30-day free trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for £8.99

Buy Now for £8.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

**Winner of the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction Award 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

 Family Life Genre Fiction LGBTQIA+ Creators Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction Heartfelt Tear-jerking

Critic reviews

'Lynch’s debut burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing.'
Affecting... Distilling sadness and hope , Lynch movingly weighs the gifts and costs of the era into which a person is born
'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’
‘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’
'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'
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
Explores love and loss, intimacy and justice, custody and care…it’s brilliant, I couldn’t put it down (Anita Rani)
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.'
'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.'
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.'
All stars
Most relevant
Great recollections of the injustice only 40 years ago. I'm the same age as adult Maggie in this story and I can't believe how far we've come in my lifetime.

How far we've come.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I read this book over a few days and I really needed the distance to process the factual elements that the story is based on. It is shocking how women were treated and how children were made to grow up without their mothers due to their relational preferences. I had no idea that these events took place and I’m so glad that this has brought this to my attention. I’m also saddened at how the legal profession convinced this father to take the action that he did and such a shame that professional as hell such strong beliefs which were based on no evidence.
It is so beautifully written in how it weaves between what happened in the 80s and the present day. I could continue to listen to the story over and over and I would love to know what happens next to the characters next. I think there is certain scope for a follow-up.

Such an important piece of historical fact into fiction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully read. Very moving. Reminder of how some things have changed for the better over my lifetime

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Devastating, heartbreaking and infuriating. This story of prejudice towards lesbian mothers as recently as the 1990s is highly recommended

Grateful we live in more enlightened times

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is brutal, heartbreaking and very upsetting. Children being taken from their mothers unfairly is too unsetting for me. And some of the courtroom scenes were inhumane. Don’t get me wrong this is a great story and very well written (it will probably be up for the woman’s prize) but I won’t be rereading this

Upsetting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews