A Family Matter
A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY • WINNER OF THE NERO GOLD PRIZE • “Burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing.” —The New York Times • Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The complexities of family life and time are put under the spotlight in this debut novel about love, loss, and lesbian history. Heron receives a terminal cancer diagnosis but stoically decides to continue with his life, including delaying telling his adult daughter, Maggie. Told in dual timelines, the story jumps back to the 1980s, when Heron’s ex-wife, Dawn, realizes she’s in love with Hazel, a woman she met at a jumble sale. In the present, Maggie attempts to navigate middle age, feeling that there must be more to life, while also trying to care for her father. Author Claire Lynch’s writing is sparsely poetic, with words and phrases that are given time to breathe and sink in. Despite being a relatively short read, the delicate and messy threads between Heron, Maggie, and Dawn that have become so tangled over the years are gently unpicked. Fans of Jodi Picoult’s emotional Small Great Things or Charlie Porter’s quietly beautiful Nova Scotia House will adore this affecting look into the lives of three people.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lynch's subtle and powerful debut novel (after the memoir Small: On Motherhood) centers on a family torn apart by a long-ago custody battle in a small English village. When Heron Barnes is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he can't manage to tell his daughter, Maggie, whom he normally shares everything with. A parallel narrative set in 1982 follows Heron's wife, Dawn, at 23, when Maggie is three. Dawn is captivated by Hazel, a teacher new to town, and the women begin an affair. After Dawn confesses to Heron, he throws her out. She continues to dote on Maggie until a solicitor suggests to Heron he attempt to gain full custody to protect Maggie from Dawn's influence. Back in the present, Maggie's grade schooler son asks Heron questions for a history project that Maggie herself has never been able to ask about her long-lost mother. When Maggie finally learns her father is dying, she goes through his papers and uncovers surprising details about the past, which run contrary to what she was told as a child. As the two narratives coalesce, Lynch devastatingly captures the homophobic prejudices of the era. Readers will be heart-struck.
