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.
Instructions for a Heatwave weaves an unforgettable narrative of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are.
