A Family Matter by Claire Lynch

 

Title:  A Family Matter

Author:  Claire Lynch

Narrated by:  Miranda Raison

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 4 hours and 41 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you

What do you prefer- hyped books or not so hyped books?  I have started to see good reviews for this book, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch, and they are much deserved.

In 1982, Dawn is a young wife and mother, trying to do what is expected of her in life, until she meets Hazel and falls in love.  Divorce and a custody battle ensue and the courts at that time will not allow a lesbian to have any contact with her own daughter.  In 2022, Heron has discovered he has terminal cancer.  He has a close relationship with his daughter Maggie, but he has always let her believe that her mother abandoned her for another man.  Will he finally tell her the truth before it is too late?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I can’t stop thinking about this story and the lost time that a mother and daughter did not get to spend together.

·       This story was told in flashbacks between 1982 and 2022 and is set in England.

·       I found the story very relatable with myself being around the age of Maggie (daughter) and my parents being around her parents’ age.  The worries, cares, and places are all so familiar.

·       It is hard to believe that tis is a debut novel.  It was a well written and compelling story that got the little things about life right.

·       This was a Read with Jenna book pick.

·       It was a short, but powerful read.

·       The audiobook narrator, Miranda Raison, was great.  She kept me riveted on a long drive for work last week while I listened to the audiobook.

·       It was a good family drama and is character driven.

·       This was an excellent read for #pridemonth.

·       There was a good author’s note at the end of the novel about the plight of lesbians in England in the 1980s with being able to keep custody of their children.  I was disturbed that the condescending verbiage the judge and lawyer used in court was really language from trials at the time.  It’s interesting how much has changed over a relatively short period of time.

Overall, A Family Matter by Claire Lynch was a powerful, well written, and compelling story that I will be thinking about for a long time.