This is an intriguing novel that plays its cards close to its chest. Heron is an elderly man who has received a difficult diagnosis from his doctor. He has a strong bond with his daughter, Maggie, who he brought up as a single parent and he wonders how he will break the news to Maggie. But there is another story under the surface of this one, with some far more challenging news to break and as Heron and Maggie re-examine their relationship, more comes to light than Heron bargained for. This is quietly shocking and tenderly powerful. The writing is exquisite and the topic handled beautifully.

A beautifully written and carefully plotted novel by Clair Lynch. Set in 1982 and 2023, the story of Heron, Maggie and Dawn unfolds and explores family bonds, and how social and cultural expectations affect our lives, dreams and relationships. Quietly moving and tenderly powerful.

A moving and totally absorbing story that expertly combines a work of fiction with the harsh realities of a little-known side of 1980s history. Sympathetically-drawn characters show just how much accepted norms at that time, damaged so many innocent families and yet ends on a message of hope that there is still time for some of that damage to be undone.

When I was downloading this book to my Kindle I gave the first page a cursory read, not meaning to start it but was sucked in immediately.

We follow the story of Heron and his adult daughter Maggie who’s married with two children and who is most honestly one of the most relatable fictional characters I’ve ever read. Being a mother of two kids the same age I was just reading it thinking “yep, yep, yep” and sometimes “yep, FML”!

The story is a dual timeline between 1982 and present day and we slowly learn why Maggie’s mother is missing from her life. It’s an emotional and abhorrent case which the reader probably wishes is a work of fiction but sadly only serves to highlight the prejudices faced by gay mothers in the 80s and 90s in the Family Courts. My heart hurt for Maggie’s mother.

Beautifully written, an incredible debut, I will be keen to read more of Claire’s work in the future.

"A Family Matter" is a poignant and masterfully written novel that sheds light on a lesser-known aspect of British history and its lasting impact. The story seamlessly weaves together two timelines, 1982 and 2022, to explore the complexities of a single family's dynamics.

As the narrative unfolds, each family member takes center stage, creating an immersive experience. The non-linear plot skillfully intertwines the characters' past and present selves, revealing a quietly devastating twist.

One of the most compelling aspects of the story is the unintentional parallels between Maggie's life and her mother's, echoing each other across a 40-year gap.

This powerful novel not only explores the intricacies of family relationships but also delves into a pivotal yet often overlooked chapter in queer history. The book poignantly portrays the toxic environment faced by lesbian women in 1980s Britain, where they were unfairly labeled as "unnatural" and "corrupt."

I was deeply moved by this narrative and appreciated its thoughtful portrayal of a frequently underrepresented topic. Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy.

What I Loved/Enjoyed About The Book:

Story/Writing/Structure:

* A story told in a simple yet powerful way with full of emotions, twist, secrets and love
* Family oriented storytelling which is easy to read and addictive


Background/A Bit Of The Plot Without Giving Anything Away:

* A Story about A Family, Secrets, Trauma, Love & Culture
* Based on a few characters and all of them play their role to make it a great story

I Highly Recommend This Book I Will Give This 5 Out Of 5 Stars

An important book that shines a light into an injustice against women which persisted in fairly recent history. Heron brought his daughter Maggie up on his own, with the help of his mother. Maggie knows very little about her own mother. She has a precious relationship with Heron but they don't talk about many things, including this. Heron shows his love by fixing things at Maggie's house.
A gentle and beguiling story, beautifully written. A fantastic debut from Claire Lynch.

Heron has had a visit to the doctor which hasn't gone well. He hasn't told his daughter Maggie about it.

But that's not the only thing he's been keeping from her.

The other thing is decades old...

Book review: A family matter , by @clairellynch .
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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..
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Oh what a emotional and wonderful book. I went in blind with this book , not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing . This was such an emotional rollercoaster of a book cannot believe that the events in this book actually took place in the 1980s. We have come so far as a society with LGBTQ we have still a long way to go get .
This book had my whole heart and more. I was so shocked with the events that happened as the main character Heron did not come across the person he was years ago . @clairellynch your writing is phenomenal..
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#bookish #bookworm #bookaholic #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #netgalley #booknerd #bookstack #bookstagramer #bookblogger

I enjoyed this from start to finish. It was beautifully written and full of sadness - I had no idea that this was happening to women so recently. I do hope attitudes have changed now. A good book-group read.

Claire Lynch’s A Family Matter is a beautifully written and deeply moving debut novel that explores the devastating consequences of one woman’s affair, unravelling the intricate threads of love, secrets, and heartache. Set across two timelines, it presents a poignant narrative about the complexities of relationships and how past choices shape the present.

In 1982, Dawn is a young mother, adjusting to life with her husband and their daughter. However, everything changes when she meets Hazel, and a powerful connection sparks between them. This love, undeniable and consuming, complicates Dawn’s life in ways she never imagined. While her newfound joy brings her closer to Hazel, it also pulls her further from the responsibilities she cannot abandon—her marriage and her child.

Fast forward to 2022, and Heron, now an older man, faces a life-altering diagnosis. For years, his life has been a quiet routine, and now, with the weight of his secret growing, he struggles to tell his only child, Maggie, about the illness that threatens his future. But more than his diagnosis, there are the long-buried secrets—ones that have defined his relationship with Maggie, shaping their bond in ways she’s never understood.

A Family Matter is an exploration of love, loss, intimacy, and the injustices faced by those in same-sex relationships during a time when such partnerships were considered immoral. As Dawn’s affair and Heron’s hidden past come to light, the emotional fallout is inevitable. Lynch paints a heart-wrenching picture of the damage caused by societal judgment, but she also holds space for the hope that can emerge when buried truths are finally faced.

What makes this novel so compelling is Lynch’s masterful characterisation. Dawn, Heron, and Maggie are all deeply flawed yet utterly human, each carrying the weight of their actions and decisions in ways that are both heartbreaking and relatable. The prose is vivid and striking, making every moment of pain and revelation feel real and raw. The ending offers a glimmer of hope, a sense of resolution after so much turmoil, which is both satisfying and deeply emotional.

A Family Matter is a powerful meditation on love, regret, and the possibility of healing from the wounds of the past. It’s a book that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page, offering both heartache and the possibility of redemption. I loved it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys deeply emotional stories with unforgettable characters.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Thatcher’s Britain.
We follow a family, from 1982 until 2022. Not everything between. Or everything in-between is not openly spelled out, but hinted at.
Dawn is punished for her identity.
Years later, her daughter Maggie finds out the many secrets kept from her.
A quick but emotional read. I wish this were longer.
Plot 4.5
Characterisation 4.5
Writing 4
Topics and themes 5

This book is heart breaking, it’s not a true story but it’s based on true life during the times. Based over a 40 year period starting in 1982. This was the year I was born, I never realised how bad in MY LIFETIME it really was for lesbian mums. My wife and I have a child and it’s just almost part of normal life. I remember section 28 in school, I remember my parents voting to not have homosexuality taught to their children. I had a friend whose mum turned out to be gay and left and her dad got custody. And we all called her mum names we didn’t understand as little 8 year olds. She went back to him eventually. Probably just so she could see her kids.

This book is so raw and full of emotion. It makes you so angry and hurt and also feel proud of how far we have come so far. Excellent writing.

I received this book as an ARC from the author for my honest review.

I would rate this 10 stars if I could. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to put into words just how much I loved this book.

This is probably one of the most unique and outstanding pieces of work I have ever read. It evoked so many emotions. It broke my heart and it warmed my heart.

The dual timeline is perfectly used - it doesn’t cause any confusion but instead allows the reader to gain an understanding of the bigger picture and to get to know the characters.

The author very delicately, respectfully and perfectly captures how different things were in the 1980s - for parents, for queer people, for children.

I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book, it will stay on my shelf forever!

Phenomenal. I will be thinking about this book for a long time, couldn’t reccomend it more. Such an important read. Highly emotive, moving and devastating.

Whenever I am reading a new book, I wonder what my book club would think. A Family Matter by Clare Lynch would definitely make a brilliant book club choice. Absorbing, emotional and a very interesting suibject. There is so much to talk about and explore with a group.
I am a fan of stories revealed over two time frames, as long as it is done well. This is beautifully written, well plotted and paced. I couldn't fault it.
I am just hoping that my book club pick it, as I want to read it again. An easy five stars from me.

I have had to let this emotional story settle in my mind for a few days before writing a review.
First of all, the quality of writing is excellent and the description of the characters so good that I felt I knew them by the end of the book.

Heron has some shattering news but doesn’t immediately share it with his daughter Maggie which is in some ways surprising as he has brought her up alone after his wife Dawn left the family home when Maggie was three years old. It is difficult to describe Heron and Maggie’s relationship. He is there for her in practical ways and always on hand to repair items around the home she shares with her husband and two children. As Heron himself admits this is the way he shows his love for her. He is clearly not a demonstrative person when it comes to showing affection. Heron, it seems does carry some guilt for taking the action he took in the past which was not entirely his fault as his mother and the legal system took a hand in telling him what he should do in the situation.

We meet Dawn, Maggie’s Mum in 1982 and it is clear that she loves Maggie dearly so what can possibly have happened to make her leave her three year old child? It soon became clear that once the court knew of Dawn’s relationship with Hazel she stood absolutely no chance of keeping her daughter.
When I found out I was shocked and devastated. How could this happen in the early 1980’s and be considered in the best interests of a small child? Dawn never left Maggie, she was taken from her.

I felt such sadness for Dawn and was so happy when mother and her grown up daughter were reunited but what a price Dawn had to pay for following her heart, her child snatched away from her. Even though she did her best to keep Maggie the court system was loaded against her. Time lost with her young daughter, never to be recovered. My thanks to the author and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this book.

A Family Matter by Claire Lynch

Set in 1982 and 2022 we discover how Heron, now at the end of his life, came to bring up his daughter Maggie alone, and how Dawn his ex-wife was banished from their lives.

Wow, this book is perfection and deserves to win prizes! It's short but really packs a punch - so beautiful and powerful. The author's characters are so real and the story so heartbreaking and rage-inducing. Honestly it's just perfection... very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I was honestly blown away by this book and the journey the author managed to take us on in a fairly short book. It’s really is a blistering debut.

The book starts out quite light hearted which was surprising considering it starts with a cancer diagnosis. As the story winds on and we meet all the characters we quickly become invested in them. It’s a testament to the authors writing prowess that she manages to make them all feel so full without resorting to overly lengthy and prosaic prose.

As the story progresses it quickly becomes clear that there is more at play than just people who aren’t happy about how their lives have turned out. When the penny drops at about the half way point and the ending we are hurtling towards becomes painfully clear you have no choice but to hold on and ride it out.

It’s truly heartbreaking and painful to realise that this story represents what so many people had to experience not so long ago. This will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and RandomHouse for the eARC

This is a rare book. A beautiful, heartbreaking, important book. It's a book that will stay with me for a very, very long time. The storyline follows Dawn in the 1980s, a young mother who falls in love with another woman, and her estranged daughter Maggie in the present day. Maggie has an unusually close relationship with her father Heron, who brought her up as a single father. But Heron has been keeping secrets from Maggie, and when the past comes back to haunt them, Maggie has to reckon with everything she thought she knew about her life. Utterly brilliant, I was captivated from page one.

I can’t believed I have lived through this time and never knew things like this were happening around me. What a beautifully written story about the quest of one woman to have her child who was everything. The only thing she did not have was the Law on her side.

This book captured me it was emotional and insightful a tale wonderfully told

A lesson for us all to learn

This book will stay with me. It’s genuinely gotten under my skin and I’ve found myself referencing it during convos with friends

4.5 ⭐️

I feel like this is a book that will stay with me for a while, it’s beautifully written and so so heartfelt.

The two timelines are woven together beautifully from 1982 and 2022.

Honestly just go out and read it, this book made me feeling everything,

A Family Matter is a character driven read and I loved it.
This is a debut book for this author and I loved it. There are 2 timelines that you bounce around. The first being 1982 and Dawn is twenty three years old, married to Heron with a daughter but Hazel comes into her life and turns it upside down. They need to be together but Heron and the year that it is has other thoughts on her having access to her daughter. Dawn gives up her daughter and moves away leaving Maggie to be brought up by her father. 2022 and Heron has some bad news but he’ll keep it to himself for a while as Maggie is busy with a job, husband and two children to look after but sorting through paperwork and handing it to Maggie to sort for herself leads to information Maggie never knew about.
Wow I loved this book, it drew me in from the beginning and didn’t let go. The last few pages will stay with me for a while as I process everything. The characters were all very real which made it easy to read. The book wasn’t too long either which was a nice change to not have something dragging out for the sake of it. A good ending leaving you with your own thoughts. A really good debut.

This book is written in two timescales - 1982 and 2022. In 1982 Dawn lives with her husband Heron and daughter Maggie and then she meets and falls in love with Hazel. She hopes that Heron will forgive her for falling in love with a woman but he doesn’t and he fights her in court for sole custody of Maggie with the help of his mother. Thanks to the lawyers, he wins. I am a similar age to Dawn, Hazel and Heron and have lived through the 80s as a young woman. It is hard to remember how different those days were and how far we have come since then although I do remember as a librarian, how clause 28 affected book selection.
Heron is dying in 2022. He knows that he will need to tell Maggie not only that he has cancer but that her mother didn’t just run away and leave her. The world Maggie grew up in is a very different world. Hard for her to understand the past. I ended up having sympathy for all these well depicted characters .
I did wonder how accurate the novel is but the author’s research is at the back of the book and proves that the novel accurately portrays how gay women with children were treated.
Thank you Netgalley for giving me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A thought-provoking tale.
Claire Lynch gives us a very well written story that deals with a situation that existed in the 1980s and earlier, but that thankfully has now been resolved.
Forty years on from then, Heron has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He sets to putting his affairs in order. He enlists the help of he daughter Maggie, for whom he has been a sole parent since 1982. She makes a discovery that relates to her mother, finding more about her and why she left. Readers learn more about this from the other timeline and from Maggie discoveries. This causes a rift with her father.
I found what is described here very disturbing, and in the acknowledgements at the end Claire Lynch tells us that this was by no.means a solitary case.

A good read. The book straddles the years between 1982 and 2022. Heron lives in Scotland now and has ill health. He keeps himself to himself and the villagers know very little about him. He keeps his illness from his daughter. Heron brings up Maggie on his own. The reason for this is that Dawn becomes infatuated by a school teacher she meets and this is where it all changes. Maggie could not to be brought up in what was then considered a “toxic” relationship – two women living together. Heron passes away and someone is sent to deal with his Estate. Eventually the truth comes out about how Maggie has been brought up by Heron and the story goes full circle when mother and daughter meet after so many years. The book is very emotional on all levels and sad but that is due to public opinions about same sex relationships in the 80’s. The book is written beautifully and sensitively

Thank you Chatto & Windus for this ARC for review!

Claire Lynch has crafted a devastatingly striking story unfolding in the domestic lives of the married Heron and Dawn and their daughter Maggie. In 1982, where Dawn meets Hazel, who awakens the lively and passionate version of herself that had felt out of reach for Dawn up until then, and Heron makes decisions that he thinks a good man, the right man would make, Maggie’s life is shaped by forces out of her control. In 2022, Maggie finds herself in a life tugged at by domestic pulls, just like her mother, when a life-altering diagnosis for Heron reveals how they really came to be father and daughter against the world back in 1983. Can the tear that broke across them then be bridged 40 years later?

This book gripped me instantly. The characters were relatable and so realistically unexpected, flawed, illogical and at one point even a little absurd – they make sense. Not in the way a math problem might make sense once solved, but in the way a real person and all their feelings, thoughts and experiences just make sense when you sit down and listen. There were so many decisions made in this story that I really did not agree with but they made sense to me. And that is Claire Lynch writing her characters and really meeting them with empathy and compassion and a fierce devotion to telling their story justly.

I am also a big fan of writing that is easy to read, conveying things straightforwardly, yet finds a way to incorporate beautiful and intricate, almost poetic descriptions of the everyday, such as:

“She keeps close to the tables, reaching out to touch sleeves and hems, the fabrics and patterns of other people’s memories.”

Or

“Something she had always known, as deep and bright as bone.”

It is like eating a Ben and Jerry’s, fully enjoying each spoonful of delicious ice cream, and every spoon or other you get that little nugget of cookie dough that just is the cherry on top of that deliciousness. That is how I would describe Lynch’s writing.

The story had me on the edge of my seat, keen to keep turning the page and find out what happened next. At the end, there is one scene I really wanted to see play out (to avoid spoilers, I will not give details) and we do not get to see it, time jumps and we are in the ‘afterward’ of that scene. And I realised that that is how the book works, we never see Heron get his diagnosis for example – what we do see is not the moments we’d anticipate to be the most emotionally laden but the ones that are affected by those emotions, the moments after the ‘big moment’, the seemingly calm domesticity for Heron, the feeling of something missing, both for Dawn and for Maggie, the conversations and interactions that play out between all of them. And that is what I love about this book – Claire Lynch has such a grasp on that moment after. The ones you usually never see in movies, where the film cuts to black after and that is what it all built to, that is when it ends. But really, life goes on and it is a question often unanswered – how does it go on? And for me, that is the interesting bit. That is life – the days seemingly untouched but underneath it all, so impacted by these catalytic moments, so shaped by them – maybe even unbeknownst to the protagonists. And that is exactly what happens to people, the days keep coming, there is no cut to black, there is just the next day, and the next, and the next, until there isn’t.

While this sounds massively depressing, the end is actually quite uplifting (although still heartbreaking) and I really resonate with the description of this book: heartbreaking and hopeful.

I believe this will be a good book for those who enjoy short chapters, intergenerational exploration of family and how it is shaped, historical fiction and are looking for something to touch them, deeply, and fill them with both a sense of loss of what is in the past, and a sense of hope for what is to come now, afterward.

Claire Lynch’s A Family Matter is a quietly devastating, gorgeously wrought novel that slips its hand gently into yours, only to press your pulse with unbearable tenderness. Set across two timelines - 1982 and 2022 - it unearths not only the ghosts of a forbidden love affair but the bureaucratic violence visited on queer women under British law, and the long, aching consequences that ripple through a family.

In prose that’s lyrical but never overwrought, Lynch threads the personal and the political into a finely embroidered tapestry. In 1982, Dawn, new mother, reluctant wife - meets Hazel, and their love blooms with quiet defiance, rich with the thrill of secrecy and the terror of being found out. “How would she begin to explain that this wasn’t new at all but the opposite. Something she had always known, as deep and bright as bone.” This isn’t just a love story, it’s a reckoning. It’s about what it means to remember yourself when the world is determined to forget you.

Forty years later, Heron, Dawn’s ex-husband, is facing his own mortality. His voice is full of ageing regret, a man “still like a boy sometimes, waiting for his mother to fix his problems for him,” haunted by what he hid and what he justified. The court transcripts (drawn from real historical cases) lend a grim authenticity, pulling no punches in their cold assessments of “risk to the child, psychological harm, influence of… perversion.”

This novel brims with characters trying - and often failing - to articulate their deepest truths. Maggie, the daughter caught in the crossfire, is an echo of her mother in ways she can’t yet see: “She looks at her reflection and has no idea if she has turned into her mother.” Lynch excels in these moments of mirrored interiority, where past and present bleed together, where love is both the balm and the pain. The writing is patient, elliptical, observant, like Annie Ernaux with a touch more warmth, or Tessa Hadley when she’s feeling unforgiving.

And yet, for all its sorrow, A Family Matter is also a love letter: to children, to mothers, to those who were made to leave and those left behind. “It had been the work of a lifetime, learning to live with what she had lost. Watching what other people had gained. The fluke of being born at a slightly different time, or in a slightly different place, all that might gift you or cost you.” Lynch writes this with the clarity of hindsight and the ache of knowing.

The final chapters left me breathless, not with melodrama but with the quiet devastation of lives re-examined and love remembered. There is forgiveness here, but not without grief. Resolution, but not without reckoning.

This is a book that deserves to be studied. A vital, beautifully-crafted account of love, loss, and the quiet resilience of queer lives lived in the shadows, and the light.

✨ Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage | Chatto & Windus for the ARC. It was an honour to read this stunning debut.

This book had me SOBBING on the way to work this week, the last couple of chapters! Wow!

This short story is full of raw emotion, educational insight into relationships and how these were considered during earlier years. A story of which will probably still resonate with a lot of people.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, more than I thought I would. I’m so glad I chose to read it when I did. This year I’m trying out new genres, historical fiction being one, and this has set the bar high for the future.

A small book, with a mighty message!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book!

I adored this book.

I found the characters to be very well rounded and believable. The characters of Dawn and Hazel (and Heron) were written so perfectly for the time period of the 80s. The portrayal of attitudes of this time were so heartbreaking but so accurate.

The more recent timeline was very well written and I could feel Maggie’s heartbreak firstly at thinking her mother had abandoned her, and then when she finds out her father has lied to her almost all her life.

My only criticism of this book is I’d have like it to have been longer. I’d have liked to have seen how Heron reacted to Maggie finding her mother and how Dawn and Hazel’s life had worked out the way it had.

Overall a fabulous story and one I will happily recommend.

Oh wow! What a beautiful book. It totally broke my heart! It’s not a long one, at little over 200 pages but it packs an absolute punch and it is one of those books that makes you sit back and realise how much prejudice existed not that long ago (it is set in the UK so I’m commenting on the UK as I know sadly prejudices continue to exist in many places) and what a huge impact that had on so many lives.

The novel is told across two timelines: 1982 and forty years later. In the early timeline we meet Dawn who adores her baby girl Maggie and Dawn’s husband Heron. Dawn has grown up in the town she was born in and did what she believed was the thing to do in life: get married, have a baby and make a home. But when she meets Hazel her life is turned upside down.

Forty years later, we see Maggie again, this time as a grown up mother herself with two children and Heron very much in her life. Father and daughter, a strong unit, even now that Maggie has her own family. Maggie genuinely believes her mother didn’t love her and left her and her Dad without a backward glance. But when Heron is diagnosed with a terminal illness and they start to clear out some of the things he’s accumulated over the years, a box of documents Maggie comes across turns her world upside down. Nothing is as Maggie understood and the truth comes rushing up to the surface.

This is a stunning novel full of emotion. It is heartbreaking and it is beautiful. It is also full of hope and shows us how things can change, how we can learn from the past and that it is never too late to understand, to forgive or to heal. I hugely recommend this short novel which you can easily devour in an afternoon but one that will stay with you for much longer!

Claire Lynch’s debut novel, A Family Matter, is a luminous exploration of love, loss, and the enduring impact of secrets. Spanning two timelines—1982 and 2022—the narrative intricately weaves the lives of Heron, a reticent father grappling with a terminal diagnosis, and Dawn, a young mother navigating the complexities of forbidden love. Lynch’s prose is both spare and evocative, capturing the nuances of familial bonds and the societal constraints that shape them. 

The dual narratives unfold with a delicate tension, revealing the profound ways in which past choices reverberate through generations. Heron’s struggle to communicate with his daughter, Maggie, is portrayed with heartbreaking authenticity, while Dawn’s journey offers a poignant commentary on the sacrifices imposed by societal expectations. Lynch’s ability to delve into the inner lives of her characters, rendering them with empathy and depth, is truly remarkable. 

This novel is not just a story about a family; it’s a meditation on the human condition, the weight of unspoken truths, and the possibility of redemption. A Family Matter is a compelling and emotionally resonant read that will linger in your thoughts long after the final page.

A slow burn of a book that isn't actually that much of a slow burn, if that makes sense? The writing is gorgeous, and the characters amazingly well fleshed out for such a short book. The last couple of chapters are a tour de force, and much of the writing contained within them punched me in the chest.

The book is divided into two timelines - one takes place in 1982 and the other in 2022. With the 'historical' timeline taking place just three years before I was born, it was actually heart breaking and shocking how Dawn was treated in court during the custody hearing. To then read the author's notes at the end and learn the questions she was asked weren't sensationalised but were taken from real life court proceedings was....chilling.

There's so much in this book about family, the way we treat and see other members of our family and the love. The chapter set on Christmas Day 2022 is just so startlingly accurate in its depiction of the multi-generational celebration.

One of the paragraphs that got me:

“Just before I fall asleep, I kiss the inside of my left wrist, on the hidden place beneath my watch, just where you always kiss it. I’m sure there must be some trace of your lips that stays there. Will you pay in some deposits when I see you on Wednesday? I need you to leave one hundred kisses on my wrist so I can cash them in when we’re apart.”

Thank you to Vintage/NetGalley for the ARC.

A beautiful, immersive but heart breaking tale. Both my daughter and myself were deeply affected by this book and could not stop talking about it. I'm so glad that I read it. This must win awards.

Wow! This book is so hard to read emotionally, however the writing is impeccable and Claire Lynch holds your hand, ensuring you are led theough the srory with care.

I am so angry that this happened to people, that everything was so twisted and that lives were altered for no reason. I wish Maggie and all like her hadn't had to go through what they did. I wish Dawn had been treated like a human. Yet I still care deeply for Heron, who made mistakes led by those he thought knew best. The 80s were hostile for gay people and I fear the current hostility for members of the queer community.

This book is quietly powerful, the characters deeply drawn and think its a story to cherish. I'll be thinking of these characters for a long time to come.

What a great novel.
It’s told across a family - in the 1980s and in the current day - and it soon becomes apparent that it’s about the secrets and lies that tear families apart.
The narrators include a man in his sixties who has just found out he is very I’ll, his daughter and ex-wife.
It’s hard to review without spoilers. But it addresses prejudices that seem a lifetime away and the long-lasting effects they have.
Recommended: beautifully written, easy to read and a tale of our times and how things change.

The tactful, tasteful and exquisite unveiling of this multi-layered and multi-faceted story is a joy. Based on the social mores of the 1980s, which have changed by the 2020s, the breakdown of a marriage, the custodial battle for a much-loved child is handled with empathy and rendered from each character’s experience. A heart-breaking and powerful exploration of judgement, the judiciary, society, which offers hope – it is never too late to bond.

We start with the fairly mundane interactions of Heron and his adult daughter Maggie, interspersed with the ordinary life of Dawn with her young daughter and husband. Each story is set in its own time, Heron and Maggie in 2022 and Dawn in 1982. Then Dawn meets Hazel and her life changes, she finds love and in finding that she loses something precious her daughter.
As the story unfolds, it takes an unexpected turn. This is haunting story of how relationships were harmed and how lives have now changed for the better. An engaging story really well written. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc.

This was an amazing book that was heartbreaking and shone light on a difficult time
Period and something I was.nt at all aware of. Just beautiful

This beautiful novel really crept up on me. It's cleverly plotted and skilfully written. The story is quietly devastating. What tangled webs are woven in families and we spend our lives trying to unpick what has happened, and sometimes what is never spoken about. A Family Matter is one of my favourite reads so far this year, highly recommend.

A beautiful read. I really loved the characters Dawn Heron and Maggie. It's so well written and I feel like this would be a brilliant tv series. Phenomenal book.

This is one of the most heartbreaking novels I've ever read.

A Family Matter tells us the story of Dawn, Heron and Maggie. It is split into two timelines. In the 1980s Dawn and Heron are married with a 4 year old daughter, Maggie. At a church sale Dawn meets Hazel and, quite simply, falls in love. Buy when she admits the affair, the outcome is not what she expected and Dawn may have to lose everything.

In 2022 Heron has just discovered he is dying. He knows he must tell daughter, Maggie, but he's not sure how and he's also sure that he is then going to have to tell her the truth about her mother's abandonment of the family.

This is a very touching and emotional story of a woman finding out what her background truly is. Maggie's reaction first to the news and then to Dawn were dealt with very sensitively. In fact the whole book is gentle and tender in tone. Claire Lynch has done a wonderful job of bringing this story to life. It wasn't sensationalised or melodramatic, just beautiful and heartfelt prose.

Reading this book I was absolutely amazed to learn that these kind of legal ramifications went on in the 1980s for a lesbian mother. In the Author's Note she tells us that the words used by the courts is taken from real documents. They disgusted and horrified me and you begin to wonder how many more families were torn apart by such prejudice. I defy anyone not to be affected by it.

Very highly recommended.

Thankyou very much to Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.
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'A Family Matter' by Claire Lynch is a beautiful, heartbreaking and emotional novel about a mother following her heart, a father doing what he thinks is right at the time and their daughter caught in the middle. I couldn't put it down, it is so emotionally captivating and beautifully written!

This book is set in two timelines. In 2022 we meet Heron, who has just received a bad medical diagnosis, and his daughter Maggie, who he brought up and is very close to. Jumping back to 1982 we follow Dawn who had to chose between her daughter and her love Hazel as being a lesbian at that time was considered as unreasonable behaviour which was putting her child in danger.

Niamh is handling such a difficult subject with so much sensitivity and gentleness. I highly recommend this book!
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Vintage Books for the opportunity to read and review this beautiful novel. All the stars!

I loved this book; it is so beautifully written with not a single spare word.
It was shocking and disturbing to discover that most lesbian mothers were not able to have access to their children after a marriage breakdown in the 1980s. Thank goodness things have changed for the better in the intervening years.

I absolutely adored this book. Right from the first page I knew I would love it - the tone, the voice, was perfect. I love the way the book was structured. Heron was presented to us first as a character to feel sympathy for and only later is it very slowly revealed what he did and the massive, awful heartache he caused his wife and daughter. The story was nuanced in the way that Heron was presented as flawed, but not evil. It would have been so easy to make the reader hate him but the book had far more impact this way and it really made you think. One of my favourite reads this year.

A Family Matter is a tender, layered read that creeps in quietly but lands with weight. It is a quietly powerful novel that deserves all the love it’s getting and then some.

This is a story that deals in the small, humdrum moments of everyday life, but beneath them, lives are being shaped, torn apart, and held together by sheer will. It’s tender, it’s raw, and it lingers long after the last page.

The novel unfolds across two timelines—1982 and 2022—blending the domestic with the devastating. Heron, in the present day, receives life-altering news. But he can’t find the words to share it with his daughter, Maggie. She’s always counted on him to fix things. But there’s one thing Heron can’t repair: the past.

Back in 1982, Maggie’s mother, Dawn, is trying to meet the expectations of her time: dutiful wife, reliable mother. Until she meets Hazel. Their connection is undeniable, but so is the weight of consequence. Because Dawn has Maggie. And back then, the law was never on her side.

Lynch imagines with great empathy the hidden heartbreak behind a harsh truth: in the 1980s, just 1 in 10 lesbian mothers in the UK retained custody of their children after divorce. This is fiction, but laced with chillingly real words spoken by judges and lawyers of the time. The result is a sobering reminder of how deeply institutional prejudice was embedded, and how costly that was for families, particularly women and children.

There’s no neat villainy here. What makes the novel so compelling is its refusal to oversimplify. It acknowledges that most people—parents, professionals, even those enforcing unjust systems—believed they were doing what was best. But whose version of “best” gets to prevail? And what’s the cost of silence, of protection, of doing what you think is right?

The writing is restrained but emotionally potent. The mundane rhythms of family life, school runs, conversations over tea, the murmurs of an ordinary day, provide a backdrop that makes the grief, the yearning, and the injustice all the more striking. You feel the author’s compassion, her quiet fury, and her deep respect for the resilience of women whose lives were shaped by shame and fear, not of their own making.

And the 80s? Lynch gets it exactly right. It’s not nostalgia, it’s recognition. A time close enough to remember but distant enough to show just how much (and often how little) has changed. Yes, it might fall under “historical fiction” now, well, just about, but for many, it’s lived memory.

If I’ve one tiny quibble, it’s that I wasn’t quite ready for the ending. I’d have happily stayed with these characters a few chapters more. But maybe that’s what a good book does? Leaves you not with neat closure, but with questions, emotions, and conversations waiting to be had.

This is an utterly absorbing, intensely moving novel about truth, protection, and the cost of silence. So if you’re drawn to rich, character-driven fiction, full of emotional nuance, quiet heartbreak, and the kind of secrets that echo through generations, this one’s for you!

Many thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. As always, all opinions are my own.

I loved this book! I was instantly hooked and felt like I didn’t want to put it down! It was one of those books I kept trying to force myself to stay up later so I could read more.
I loved the way we go between the two time periods but have the different pov for each so we get just a glimpse of each character. I love how it was just a short book and still felt it covered a lot. It’s definitely quite a heavy book that tackles a few difficult themes but so worth it!

I’d definitely recommend this book!

A dual timeline story, set between 1982 and 2022. In 1982 we follow Dawn- whose life changes drastically after an affair with a woman. In 2022 we follow Heron whose rigid life comes undone when he receives a terminal diagnosis and has to tell his daughter. Shining a light on heartbreak that was common place for divorced lesbian mothers, this was deeply touching, moved me so much and I felt the anger and sorrow. An amazing read.

This book has everything I love in a great read..... characters in emotional turmoil, relationships, family secrets and a bit of history. It is a story of Dawn, Hazel, Herron and Maggie and set in both the early 1980's and 2020's. In all honesty I was shocked to read how women were treated, (being 50yrs old, the 1980's don't feel that long ago), it really makes you think how far we have come as females and what it means to be a family. I thought this novel well researched by the author and the subject handled so tenderly in the novel. As a mum my heart was breaking while I devoured the words and my only gripe was it just wasn't long enough...I felt it definitely had a couple more chapters to go when it ended. I would 100% recommend this book to my girlfriends, it's thought provoking and a great one to debate over. If you love, emotionally charged, character rich stories, give this one a go, you won't be disappointed.

Thank you to Netgalley