25th February, 7:30pm - Claire Lynch in conversation with Clare Chambers about A Family Matter

Backstory, 71 Balham High Rd, SW12 9AP

Clare Chambers (author of Small Pleasures, Shy Creatures) will be in conversation with the winner of the 2025 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction, Claire Lynch about A Family Matter. 

About the book:

An immersive and tender debut novel that tells the story of one family torn apart
by secrets, prejudice and their own best intentions.

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’s been protecting her from for so long.

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.

A Family Matter is an immersive and tender debut, at once heart-breaking and hopeful,
that asks how we might heal from the wounds of the past, and what we might learn
from them.

Tickets Available:

Ticket only - £15 (This ticket does not include a copy of the book. You can decide to buy a copy on the night, but this will be charged in addition, at the full price of the book.)

Ticket & book  (RRP £9.99) - £21 (To collect on the night.)