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Book Cover for: A Family Matter: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel, Claire Lynch

A Family Matter: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel

Claire Lynch

Reader Score

77%

77% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 4 reviews on

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A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY - "Burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing." --The New York Times

A young wife following her heart. A husband with the law on his side. Their daughter, caught in the middle. Forty years later, a family secret changes everything in this "quietly heart-scorching" (Barbara Kingsolver) debut novel.

1982. Dawn is a young mother, still adjusting to life with her husband, when Hazel lights up her world like a torch in the dark. Theirs is the kind of connection that's impossible to resist, and suddenly life is more complicated, and more joyful, than Dawn ever expected. But she has responsibilities and commitments. She has a daughter.

2022. Heron has just received news from his doctor that turns everything upside down. He's an older man, stuck in the habits of a quiet existence. Telling Maggie, his only child--the person around whom his life has revolved--seems impossible. Heron can't tell her about his diagnosis, just as he can't reveal all the other secrets he's been keeping from her for so many years.

A Family Matter is an "intricately layered and infinitely nuanced" (Oprah Daily) exploration of love and loss, intimacy and injustice, custody and care, and whether it is possible to heal from the wounds of the past in the changed world of today.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Scribner Book Company
  • Publish Date: Jun 3rd, 2025
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.62in - 5.64in - 0.96in - 0.75lb
  • EAN: 9781668078891
  • Categories: LiteraryLGBTQ+ - LesbianFamily Life - Marriage & Divorce

About the Author

Lynch, Claire: - 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.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"I was so moved and humbled by this beautifully crafted novel that I held it in my hands after finishing for a moment of thanks. In frank and straightforward prose, A Family Matter captures the heart-gripping consequences of forbidden love and reminds us that while the world is far from perfect there are among us decent people who are trying, little by little, to make it better." --Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes

"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, author of Notes to Self