Instructions for a Heatwave A novel [Paperback]

London, 1976. In the thick of a record-breaking heatwave, Gretta Riordan’s newly retired husband has cleaned out his bank account and vanished. Now, for the first time in years, Gretta calls her children home : Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing; Monica, whose blighted past has driven a wedge between her and her younger sister; and Aoife, the youngest, whose new life in Manhattan is elaborately arranged to conceal a devastating secret.
       In a story that stretches from the Upper West Side to a village on the coast of Ireland, Maggie O’Farrell explores the mysteries that inhere within families, and reveals the fault lines over which we build our lives.Instructions for a Heatwaveweaves an unforgettable narrative of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are. 

“Warmhearted. . . . Work[s] out who people really are, how ordinary lives can conceal extraordinary stories.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Perhaps a perfect book. . . . Proceeding at a stately and crisp speed through a fully rendered world, grappling at all times and in an original way with the fascinating problems of our time, rushing head-long—and yet staggering almost drunkenly when necessary—towards a stirring and wondrous conclusion.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books

“A thoroughly engrossing and suspenseful novel. . . . O’Farrell, in this beautifully written tale, gets the psychological nuances just right.” —Anita Shreve

“A narrative of extraordinary power. . . . Big-hearted, psychologically complex, and utterly gripping from page one.” —Maria Semple, author ofWhere’d You Go, Bernadette

“A beautiful book. . . . Spellbinding.” —NPR

“O’Farrell has done it again. . . . There is a dell3³