Instructions for a Heatwave

By Maggie O'Farrell

Book Overview

An unforgettable narrative--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet--of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are.

"Strange weather brings out strange behavior." 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345804716
• ISBN13: 9780345804716
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 7.9"