Instructions for a Heatwave
The Sunday Times Bestseller from the Author of Hamnet
Published on 27. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-0354-3010-9 (ISBN)
Description
The Sunday Times top 10 bestselling summer read from author of HAMNET and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT
*Over 380,000 copies sold*
Shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award
'Addictive. Told with real humanity, warmth, and infectious love' Observer
_____
It's July 1976 and London is in the grip of a heatwave. It hasn't rained for months, the 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 may have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share.
_____
'Superlative. A Mike Leigh-style extravaganza of reckonings and reconciliations' Vogue
'O'Farrell is hard to beat' Scotsman
'There is a deliciousness to this novel, a warmth and readability, that render it unputdownable' Guardian
_____
? What readers are saying; ?
'The best Maggie O`Farrell I have read to date' ? ? ? ? ?
'I read it in two sittings. A joy' ? ? ? ? ?
'So well-observed, this family draws you in' ? ? ? ? ?
*Over 380,000 copies sold*
Shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award
'Addictive. Told with real humanity, warmth, and infectious love' Observer
_____
It's July 1976 and London is in the grip of a heatwave. It hasn't rained for months, the 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 may have gone. None of them suspects that their mother might have an explanation that even now she cannot share.
_____
'Superlative. A Mike Leigh-style extravaganza of reckonings and reconciliations' Vogue
'O'Farrell is hard to beat' Scotsman
'There is a deliciousness to this novel, a warmth and readability, that render it unputdownable' Guardian
_____
? What readers are saying; ?
'The best Maggie O`Farrell I have read to date' ? ? ? ? ?
'I read it in two sittings. A joy' ? ? ? ? ?
'So well-observed, this family draws you in' ? ? ? ? ?
Reviews / Votes
An accomplished debut that excellently conveys the experience of being deaf in a hearing world. A Sign of Her Own gives a fascinating insight into a moment in history when the invention of the telephone was poised to connect countless people, yet deaf communities were being silenced by a movement against the use of sign language. Beautifully written, absorbing and illuminatingMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
310 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0354-3010-9 (9781035430109)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2013
Tinder Press
€5.49
Available for download
Person
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 three books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO, THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK and WHEN THE STAMMER CAME TO STAY. She lives in Edinburgh.