A Family Matter

'I was so moved and humbled by this beautifully crafted novel ... captures the heart-gripping consequences of forbidden love'

Mary Beth Keane

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

'I was caught up from the first page, and completely taken aback by this story of restraint and 'civilised' behaviour, and things unsaid. I loved it’

Clare Chambers

'To tackle heart-wrenching emotion with such precision and restraint takes one hell of a talent. An impeccable debut that takes the mess of life and turns it into something quite beautiful. A timely reminder of love’s redemptive power. I was blown away by this novel.'

Lotte Jeffs

I’m full of admiration for this novel, which strikes the satisfying balance of being both quietly observed and deeply felt. It’s an intimate portrait of expectation, love and restraint written with great sensitivity and warmth. I adored it.'

Chloe Ashby

‘A wonderful novel: profoundly sad but also absolutely gripping… it manages to be damning about a culture and a system whilst being compassionate towards the human beings pitted against each other inside that system’

Mark Haddon

'A beautifully written, quiet yet devastating rebuke to an era of cruel prejudice, A Family Matter made me weep like a baby.'

Emma Donoghue

'A beautiful and tender exploration of parental love, prejudice and the things we carry that we don’t even fully understand; the terrible decisions made in ignorance, and the almost unbearable consequences'

Rachel Joyce

'I read this bone-chilling, soul-affirming novel while on the edge of my seat, as though I'd been waiting for it for years. A Family Matter is structurally exciting, emotionally resonant, and deeply effective. Claire Lynch explores themes our culture fears, and in doing so, promotes healing of our world'

Chloe Caldwell

'A triumph! Like the great Maggie O'Farrell, Claire Lynch deals brilliantly with both big themes and small moments. I can’t express how impressed I was by A Family Matter. It is, in a word, perfect'

Elin Hilderband

I was blown away within pages of this novel, the profoundly moving, beautifully written fiction debut… it deserves to be, and I’m sure will be, one of the major breakout titles of 2025

Bookseller

[A] beautifully written, immersive and tender debut novel

North East Lifestyle

Beautifully written… A stunning debut

Prima

'Lynch’s debut burns like a sparkler, quick and mesmerizing.'

New York Times

Affecting... Distilling sadness and hope , Lynch movingly weighs the gifts and costs of the era into which a person is born

Mail on Sunday

[A] quietly stunning debut novel… This spectacularly powerful novel blooms with emotion

Cambridge Edition

A moving tale of a family fractured by love and kept apart by a reactionary state… Beautifully observed. I sense a big movie in this

Irvine Welsh, author of TRAINSPOTTING, Guardian,

Beautifully told

Prima, *Books of the Year*

Gorgeous writing, beautifully told. From the first lines I was caught up in this family's net, the half-truths, the lies, and the love

Claire Fuller