Claire Lynch’s debut novel, A Family Matter, became an immediate hit with the Griffin Books team when it was first released; with a number os us even arguing over who would have it as their Staff Pick that month! It went on to win both the Nero Debut Fiction Award and the Nero Gold Prize Book of the Year 2025.

It is an immersive and tender debut novel – both heart-breaking and hopeful – that tells the story of one family torn apart by secrets, prejudice and their own best intentions. It is a book that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

We’re delighted to welcome Claire to Penarth to talk about her award-winning debut.

A Family Matter:

A mother following her heart. A father with the law on his side. A child caught in the middle. 

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’d been protecting her from for so long. 

Maggie has always lived with an absence where her mother should be. Her father never speaks of her and it feels impossible to ask. Then an official letter arrives with news from the past, and she must face a truth far bigger than just her family’s secret. 

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.

Claire Lynch is a university lecturer and scholar of English and Irish literature. She is the author of Small: On Motherhoods. She lives in Windsor with her wife and three daughters.