Instructions for a Heatwave

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.

Short-listed for Costa Novel Award 2013

“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 TimesMy favourite kind of novel: big-hearted, psychologically complex and utterly grippingUnputdownableInstantly appealing...magical - Daily TelegraphMasterful...holds you on an exquisite knife-edge - Marie ClaireAn author at the top of her game - Sunday ExpressO'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 - MetroA quite wonderful novel...at once enthralling, page turning and atmospheric - Irish Examiner”

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 - Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Unputdownable - Joanna Briscoe, Guardian

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

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.

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.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.