I usually don’t use terms like “unputdownable”. But…this book. I almost finished it in one day and would have if my own personal family matters hadn’t gotten in the way. Here is my book review A Family Matter by Claire Lynch.

Changing Views on Love

Lynch brings us a story of love in 1982 in England and love in 2022 in England. She gently layers these two timelines to guide the reader through the nuances of societal changes and the wreckage left behind.

1982

We meet Dawn, dutiful wife and loving mother of toddler Maggie. Dawn goes about her life raising her child but also feeling like something is missing. She has played the game as women are supposed to; married, children, take care of the house. Things that are “normal” until she meets Hazel. Dawn and Hazel will have a connection that is unplanned but impossible to resist. Dawn is lost as how she should proceed given she loves her daughter.

2022

Maggie is now a grown woman with children of her own. Raised by her father after her mother abandoned her when she was four. Maggie and her Dad Heron are very close, always have been, given it was always just the two of them. But when Heron gets a cancer diagnosis, secrets begin to be shared – first covertly and then fully. Maggie is stung. Breathless. Lost. How has this information never been part of her life? How did she not know the truth of what really happened to her mother in 1982.

Beautiful

This story is so beautifully written, deep and powerful. Shameful things that unfortunately happened in a different era…with families paying the price for a lifetime.

*****Five stars for A Family Matter by Claire Lynch. Yes indeed it was “unputdownable”.

Thanks for reading my book review A Family Matter by Claire Lynch. See last week’s book review Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConoghy.

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