Instructions for a Heatwave: A novel (Vintage Contemporaries)
<p><b>An unforgettable narrative of a family falling apart and coming together with hard-won, life-changing truths about who they really are. <b><b><b>From the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Hamnet.</i></b></b></b></b><br /><br /><i>“</i>Strange weather brings out strange behavior<i>.” </i>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. <br /><br />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. </p>