Claire Lynch's debut novel A Family Matter, winner of the Nero Gold prize for fiction, unfolds across two timelines as it delves into family secrets and a bitter divorce. The story begins in 2022 with Heron, an older man diagnosed with terminal cancer. Despite appearing to cope, he climbs into a freezer at his local supermarket and must be coaxed out by staff. Heron, a creature of routine who prefers solitude, enlists his only daughter, Maggie, to help sort through his house and paperwork.
Maggie is close to her father, who raised her alone after her mother, Dawn, supposedly deserted the family. However, while sifting through Heron's papers, Maggie uncovers the real reason for her mother's estrangement. The second timeline, set in 1982, reveals young mother Dawn falling in love with a schoolteacher named Hazel. In the 1980s, family courts held a dim view of homosexuality, believing children would be harmed by same-sex parents. Consequently, a devastated Dawn was separated from three-year-old Maggie, and Heron was granted full custody after their divorce.
Narrator Miranda Raison adeptly handles the book's multiple voices, while Lynch reads the author's note, explaining how the story was inspired by real-life lesbian mothers forcibly separated from their children in the 1980s. She reflects on the subsequent shift in attitudes and legislation, noting that "parenting possibilities can now feature in the imagined futures of LGBTQ+ relationships." The audiobook, available via Vintage Digital, runs 4 hours and 41 minutes.
Further Listening
Even the Good Girls Will Cry
Melissa Auf der Maur, Atlantic Books, 13hr 27min. The former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist recounts her early life in Montreal, her adventures in 1990s grunge-rock, and her subsequent career as a songwriter and solo artist, read by the author.
Homework
Geoff Dyer, Canongate, 10hr 46min. Actor Leighton Pugh narrates this dryly funny memoir about coming of age in England in the 1970s. Set in an end-of-terrace house in Cheltenham, Dyer's account of his childhood is low in drama yet rich in observation and period detail.
