A Family Matter by Claire Lynch @clairellynch @simon.audio @simonaudio.bsky.social @librofm #AFamilyMatter

the setup…
It’s 1982 and Dawn, a young woman married to Heron and mother of their toddler daughter Maggie, encounters Hazel, a delightful woman who’s a teacher and has the gift of gab. Something about her lights Dawn from within in a way she’s never experienced. It soon becomes apparent that Dawn needs to make a change. Transition to 2022 and Heron is struggling with bad news from his doctor that he doesn’t know how to share with his daughter Maggie and two grandchildren. It’s what happened in between that truly matters.

the heart of the story…
Marriages have crumbled because of affairs for centuries but in 1982, a woman leaving her husband for another woman was a different matter. Heron made decisions regarding custody of Maggie that had devastating consequences, making it a commentary on Dawn’s sexual preference rather than what was best for the child, egged on by a rabid judicial system. We see the consequences forty years later and now Heron has to face telling his daughter the truth about what happened and dealing with the fallout. It was heartbreaking on so many levels.

the narration…
Miranda Raison was wonderful in letting the beauty of the writing flow without much embellishment. She’s a terrific storyteller.

the bottom line…
I was surprised to find so much complexity in a short story. Lynch skillfully presents an uncomplicated and pure romance that was tainted by other’s prejudices, turning it into something ugly and detrimental to parenting. She made Heron a villain and sympathetic at the same time, surprising me in how I experienced him that way. I loved the rawness of it all and there’s an authenticity here that prevented me from taking sides, which was extraordinary. This is why I almost always read a Read With Jenna selection.

Book Info

• Release Date: June 3, 2025
• Narrator: Miranda Raison
• Audio Length: 4 hours, 41 minutes
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

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(Thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio and Libro.fm for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)