Review
'Here is an author whose depth and insight hover just below the surface of an apparently effortless lightness...There is a deliciousness to this novel, a warmth and readability that render it unputdownable and will surely make it a hit. She's done it again' Joanne Briscoe, Guardian
'Consolidates her reputation as a writer who depicts relationships with piercing acuity in haunting, intense prose. O'Farrell is a deliciously insightful writer, observing the dynamics of relationships and astutely filleting them to the bone. Her sharp but humane eye dissects every form of human interaction' Independent on Sunday
'Instructions For A Heatwave, evocative, articulate and joyously readable, does not disappoint. An author at the top of her game.' Sunday Express
'O'Farrell is a great storyteller... All of 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' The Irish Times
'This is a surprising, beautiful novel, full of the intricacies of family life.... you'll find yourself wanting to devour it in one sitting' --The Sun's Fabulous Magazine
'Consolidates her reputation as a writer who depicts relationships with piercing acuity in haunting, intense prose. O'Farrell is a deliciously insightful writer, observing the dynamics of relationships and astutely filleting them to the bone. Her sharp but humane eye dissects every form of human interaction' Independent on Sunday
'Instructions For A Heatwave, evocative, articulate and joyously readable, does not disappoint. An author at the top of her game.' Sunday Express
'O'Farrell is a great storyteller... All of 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' The Irish Times
'This is a surprising, beautiful novel, full of the intricacies of family life.... you'll find yourself wanting to devour it in one sitting' --The Sun's Fabulous Magazine
Product Description
The stunning new novel from Costa-Novel-Award-winning novelist Maggie O'Farrell: a portrait of an Irish family in crisis in the legendary heatwave of 1976.
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 wih 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.
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 wih 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.
