Published in 2025
195 pages
Claire Lynch has a doctorate from the University of Oxford and is a professor of English and creative writing. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post and on BBC Radio. She lives in Windsor, England, with her wife and three daughters.
What is this book about?
No one need know about her mother’s deviation
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.
At once heart-breaking and hopeful, A Family Matter asks how we might heal from the wounds of the past, and what we might learn from them.
