June Book of the Month | Emma recommends... A Family Matter - Claire Lynch | SIGNED INDIES EDITION

Emma recommends... A Family Matter is a brilliant, beautiful, and quietly heart-breaking book, highlighting - in an incredibly sensitive and subtle way - an important, hidden LGBTQ history. The dual timeline brings perfect poise to the unfolding narrative and the characters are all so fully rounded and rendered that you see them in their complete humanity - everyone wronged in some way while also all being at least a little bit in the wrong. Small details of domestic life and inner life are perfectly observed and then sharply contrasted with the weight of systemic prejudice in the justice system and the terrible realities of Section 28. The author's note explaining the balance of fact and fiction in the novel brings both shock and comfort, but primarily shows just how essential this book is.

Book tickets for our event with Claire Lynch here.

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

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.

A Family Matter is an immersive and tender debut, at once heart-breaking and hopeful, that asks how we might heal from the wounds of the past, and what we might learn from them.