A Family Matter

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

‘I’ll be thinking about it for ever’ Barbara Kingsolver
‘A gorgeously written story…a must-read’ Jennie Godfrey
‘Powerful and beautifully written… Lynch is a huge new talent in fiction' Good Housekeeping, Book of the Month
‘I was caught up from the first page and completely taken aback by this story. I loved it’ Clare Chambers

1982 Dawn is a young wife and mother hemmed in by village life. Then Hazel appears like a torch in the dark. Their attraction is instant and suddenly Dawn’s world is more joyful, and more complicated, than she ever expected.

2022 Maggie has always lived with an absence where her mother should be. Her father never speaks of her and it feels impossible to ask. Then an official letter arrives with news from the past, and Maggie must face a truth far bigger than just her family’s secret.

'A beautiful and tender exploration of parental love, prejudice and the things we carry' Rachel Joyce
‘A brilliant book… Full of heart, sympathy and sadness’ Sara Pascoe
‘A triumph! Like the great Maggie O’Farrell, Claire Lynch deals brilliantly with both big themes and small moments’ Elin Hilderbrand
‘Smart and heartbreaking’ Guardian

***READERS ARE IN LOVE WITH A FAMILY MATTER***
‘I would rate this 10 stars if I could’
‘Utterly brilliant, I was captivated from page one’
‘This book had my whole heart and more’
‘A beautiful, heartbreaking, important book’
‘I can’t get the story out of my head’
‘It totally broke my heart’
‘I’ll be thinking of these characters for a long time to come’

'Lynch’s debut burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing.'
New York Times

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

About Claire Lynch

Claire Lynch has spent her career teaching literature in universities. She is the author of Small: On Motherhoods. She lives in Windsor with her wife and three daughters.

Details

Imprint: Vintage
Published: 19/03/2026
ISBN: 9781529942354
Length: 224 pages
Price: £9.99

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A Family Matter

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'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'

'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.'

'I was so moved and humbled by this beautifully crafted novel ... captures the heart-gripping consequences of forbidden love'

'A beautifully written, quiet yet devastating rebuke to an era of cruel prejudice, A Family Matter made me weep like a baby.'

About Claire Lynch

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