Instructions for a Heatwave: The bestselling novel from the prize-winning author of THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT and HAMNET

Maggie O'Farrell

8 Reviews

Rated 0

British Isles, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Fiction, Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Imprint

Tinder Press
- Paperback Sep 10, 2013 | 9780755358793 | RRP $22.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Feb 28, 2013 | 9780755398591 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Feb 28, 2013 | 9780755386833 | RRP $11.99 Buy Now
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Imprint

Tinder Press
- Paperback Sep 10, 2013 | 9780755358793 | RRP $22.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Feb 28, 2013 | 9780755398591 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Feb 28, 2013 | 9780755386833 | RRP $11.99 Buy Now
Play Sample
0:00
Imprint

Tinder Press
- Paperback Sep 10, 2013 | 9780755358793 | RRP $22.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Feb 28, 2013 | 9780755398591 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Feb 28, 2013 | 9780755386833 | RRP $11.99 Buy Now
Play Sample
0:00

An unforgettable portrait of an Irish family in crisis in the legendary heatwave of 1976

A story of a dysfunctional but deeply loveable family reunited, set during the legendary summer of 1976, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE by Maggie O'Farrell was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award and was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller (2013).

It's July 1976. In London, it hasn't rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta's children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share.

Praise for Instructions for a Heatwave: The bestselling novel from the prize-winning author of THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT and HAMNET

The Riordans will stay in your mind long after you finish this book. They're funny, infuriating and impossible not to love. They feel like family - Irish Times
My favourite kind of novel: big-hearted, psychologically complex and utterly gripping
Unputdownable
Instantly appealing...magical - Daily Telegraph
Masterful...holds you on an exquisite knife-edge - Marie Claire
An author at the top of her game - Sunday Express
O'Farrell's language is lissom, airborne, mostly seamless, her characters flawed, contradictory, aggravating and instantly knowable. This is a deceptively easy, effortlessly true-feeling novel; a total delight - Metro
A quite wonderful novel...at once enthralling, page turning and atmospheric - Irish Examiner

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Maggie O'Farrell discussing 'Instructions for a Heatwave'

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Maggie O'Farrell discussing 'Instructions for a Heatwave'

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Maggie O'Farrell

Maggie O'Farrell is the author of HAMNET, Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020, and the memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, both Sunday Times no. 1 bestsellers. Her novels include AFTER YOU'D GONE, MY LOVER'S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT, which was shortlisted for the Women's Prize. She is also the author of two books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO and THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK. She lives in Edinburgh.