Instructions for a Heatwave by the bestselling author of Hamnet (Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award)

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tinder Press

Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 8, 2013

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Print length ‏ : ‎ 352 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0755358821

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9780755358823

Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.01 pounds

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.06 x 1.18 x 9.21 inches

Review

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 illuminating -- Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies

About the Author

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.