A Family Matter

Brought to you by Penguin.

An immersive and tender debut novel that tells the story of one family torn apart by secrets and their own best intentions.

It’s 2022, and Heron has just had the sort of visit to the doctor that turns a life upside down. He’s an old man, stuck in the habits of a quiet life. Telling Maggie, his only daughter, and the person his life has revolved around for so long, seems impossible. Heron can’t tell her about the diagnosis, and he can’t tell her all the other things he’s been keeping from her all these years either.

It’s 1982, and Dawn is a young mother – just beginning to adjust to life in her husband’s house rather than her parents’ – when Hazel breezes into her life like a torch in the dark. It’s the kind of connection that’s impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than she ever expected. But Dawn has responsibilities, she has commitments: Dawn has Maggie.
A Family Matter is at once heart-breaking and hopeful, asking how we might heal from the wounds of the past.

© Claire Lynch 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025