Instructions for a Heatwave

by Maggie O'Farrell

An unforgettable narrative—f rom the New York Times bestselling author of 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 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. 

Don’t miss Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel, The Marriage Portrait !

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Book Club, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook

319 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2013

About the author

Maggie O'Farrell (born 1972, Coleraine Northern Ireland) is a British author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future. It is possible to identify several common themes in her novels - the relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters.

Reviews

[Angela M · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

It’s a commonly told story, both in fiction and in real life: a crisis in the family brings siblings back to their childhood home and back to the memories of the past. It’s usually a struggle to sort things out as secrets and resentments unfold. However, there is nothing common about how Maggie O’Farrell draws you into the lives of her characters in this drama of the Riordan family. The air is stifling and not just because of the heat wave that London is experiencing in 1976. Gretta is Irish and religious and pops pills for her headaches, loves to eat, is unassuming and she doesn’t understand why her husband Robert has left, disappeared without a word. When her three adult children come home to help her through this and try to find out what happened to their father, they find some clues that might lead to him. Gretta is forced to reveals a secret of their past as well as some things about their father that they didn’t know. Her children though, have problems of their own. Michael and Monica have troubled marriages and Aiofe, the youngest has distanced herself from the family both geographically and otherwise. She too has kept a secret from her family and now tries to keep it from the people in her life in New York, from the man she cares about.

They return to Ireland in hopes of finding Robert and as I was reading I couldn’t help but hope that they can also find forgiveness and the unconditional love that bound them together as a family. I found the same fabulous writing here that I’ve found in all of the other novels by O’Farrell that I have read. The narrative allows the reader into the thoughts of the characters with flashbacks, remembering things that happened. The tone, the descriptions - always perfectly on base and while my experiences may be different from some of her characters, I get them and I feel for them even if they are flawed - aren’t we all ? She’s one of my favorite writers.

[Jessica J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why have I not read Maggie O'Farrell before?!

I don't know, 'cause she's gooooood. Like, sit in the bathtub until you're a prune good. Miss your stop on the train good. Refuse to split the driving time on a weekend road trip good.

I may or may not have done all of these things while reading this book.

In all honesty, this is a pretty standard Family in Crisis novel. The basic plot is a rather familiar one: husband leaves one day and doesn't come home, mother requests the presence of her far-flung adult children who are each so burdened with their own little dramas that their relationships with each other have disintegrated. O'Farrell has set her version of these events in the midst of the 1976 heatwave that sent London into a drought, at a time when the Irish were still viewed suspiciously and traditional values clashed with modern attitudes in the worst way.

Gretta is the mother with a larger than life presence that her children find more embarrassing than anything. Michael Francis, the eldest, is struggling to keep his marriage together despite his resentment that is has cost him all of his professional aspirations. Monica, the favorite, lost her first marriage to an ill-kept secret and now feels beleaguered by how much her second husband's daughters resent her. Aiofe, the baby, has run off to New York after a falling out with Monica and struggles to hide the fact that she can not read. Robert, the absent father, has long used his bookish nature and difficult war experiences as an excuse to avoid discussing his equally difficult personal history.

So I saw Jami Attenburg speak at the Gaithersburg Book Festival earlier this spring, and she mentioned that she had been asked to blurb this book. It's her blurb that ultimately sums up the best thing about this book: "It's just the kind of family drama I love: Nobody gets off easy in it, but everybody gets treated with compassion.”

I love, love, loved these characters. They're complicated and flawed, but entirely realistic and deserving of empathy. Each character made me - in equal parts - root for them and exclaim, "What the fuck, dude?" They were so, so human.

Then there's the fact that O'Farrell could write the face off just about anyone else currently sitting pretty in the new release bins. I've read a long string of "meh" books over the last few months and I was long overdue for a book that I could not put down. Her prose just rolled around in my head and I didn't want it to stop. I was impressed by the way that she laid out tiny little ironies -- the illiterate character with the name no one can properly pronounce -- just waiting to be picked apart and mined for meaning, yet never so in your face that I wanted to pat her on the head and say, "We get it, sweetie."

My one complaint, the only thing that I can see being a problem for other folks, is that it feels as though O'Farrell rushed through the ending in order to tie every loose thread up but didn't quite address everything. I got to the end and I wanted...just a little more. The bows she tied everything up with were a little too vague. Regardless, this book is fantastic, exactly what I needed.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The long hot summer of 1976 has become legendary in the UK. This may cause a degree of eye rolling to some goodreads friends from warmer climes, as what it amounted to was three or four months of nice sunny weather, above average temperatures and very little rain ....... but to us, this had historical significancel! In all fairness some rivers and reservoirs ran dry, and there was water rationing for a while with standpipes in some areas.
This is the backdrop to Instructions For A Heatwave, Maggie O’Farrell’s sixth and Booker nominated novel - a beautifully written, slightly claustrophobic study of the Riordan family, a family with Irish roots living in London.
At the heart of the tale is a mystery. Robert, a quiet man, dependable and predictable, recently retired from his job at the bank, leaves the house (as he does every morning) to pick up the papers.
He doesn’t return.
Gretta his wife is confused and distraught. She eventually calls their grown up children with the news. Peter, Aoife and Monica arrive to search for clues and unpick the past, each sibling immersed in their own fears, insecurities and failings.
It being a Maggie O’Farrell novel, the writing is wonderful and the characters stroll off the page and become very real. The narrative wasn’t as ambitious as This Must Be The Place, my favourite O’Farrell so far (controversial choice) and I still have Hamnet to read ..... but this is still a very fine novel.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet, solemn novel that sifts through the whys and the wherefores of a father who steps out to buy his morning newspaper and does not return home.  As it slowly soaks in that he is really gone, the mother summons their adult children home.  Ah, the dreaded family conference.  It's odd, too, because Father has always been the dependable one, with Mother being the more mercurial parent.  Meanwhile, the siblings are all dealing with significant problems of their own, and the timing of this family crisis is not ideal.

The writing put me in the mind of Anne Tyler, but with a definite Irish flavor.  The title doesn't seem to have a great deal to do with the story, but I applaud its originality.  I am sorry to leave the Riordan family, and look forward to reading more of Maggie O'Farrell's novels.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
A copy of Instructions for a Heatwave was provided to me by Knopf for review purposes.

'Odd that your life can contain such significant tripwires to your future and, even while you wander through them, you have no idea.'

The story itself starts off at a slow and leisurely pace that doesn't ever quite pick up speed but the writing itself was quite gripping. The characters are also very drab and almost boring but they're written so well that they somehow manage to be intriguing nonetheless. The three grown-up children (of the missing father) are the center of the story despite the fact that it was their father that went missing, their father that was initially the reason for this story. Him going missing was simply the catalyst to bringing these three children back together after many years of separation.

As the story progressed I became less and less interested in why their father disappeared and even with the odd assortment of drama every character managed to possess. The ongoing family drama seemed more stereotypical than interesting and while the characters themselves may have been intriguing at first That certainly didn't last. You know those characters in stories that make idiotic choices or choose to withhold some vital information and you can't help but scream, "Just TELL SOMEONE" yet they don't and it just produces more drama and continues to cause problems? Well, that happened. And it was ridiculous and failed to garner any sympathy from me. Also, the ending was completely preposterous and was actually quite laughable. Hint: Your questions will likely not be answered.

Simply put, this "sweeping family drama" only managed to be mediocre due to the lackluster cast of characters and their completely avoidable drama. Yet another highly anticipated summer read that failed to meet any of my expectations.

[Margitte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid, gripping family saga. A thoroughly enjoyable read. One of those books that makes living a joy. Packed with back story and intrigue.

THE BLURB
The stunning new novel from Costa Award winning novelist Maggie O'Farrell: a portrait of an Irish family in crisis in the legendary heatwave of 1976. 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. Maggie O'Farrell's sixth book is the work of an outstanding novelist at the height of her powers.

I needed this novel right now. I will read this author again.

[PattyMacDotComma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5★
First. Before anything else. Thank you Maggie O’Farrell for this (and you’re welcome, anyone else like me who has never got this right either):

“‘Mum,’ Aoife says again. ‘It’s me.’

‘Aoife?’

It strikes Aoife in that moment that her mother is the only one who can properly pronounce her name. The only person in whose mouth it sounds as it should. Her accent—still unmistakably Galway, after all these years—strikes the first syllable with a sound that is halfway between E and A, and the second with a mysterious blend of V and F. She drives the name precisely between both ‘Ava’ and ‘Eva’ and ‘Eve’, passing all three but never colliding with them. Aoife, she says, exactly and like no one else.”

Disclaimer: I am predisposed to like Maggie O’Farrell’s stories. They are inhabited by real people, haunted by their pasts and their upbringings. They may not know, if you asked them, what’s wrong, why are you the way you are, but O’Farrell knows and shows us. Each member of this family has their own story as well as their shared story.

A man arriving home, quietly lamenting his all-too-short bachelorhood, finds his little kids waiting for dinner but nothing’s ready. Again.

Then, up comes his little girl “knocking her curly head into his thigh, like a little goat . . . He is, again and for a moment, completely the person he is meant to be: a man, in his kitchen, lifting his daughter into the air. . . He is filled with—what? Something more than love, more than affection. Something so keen and elemental it resembles animal instinct. For a moment, he thinks that the only way to express this feeling is cannibalism. Yes, he wants to eat his daughter, starting at the creases in her neck, moving down to the smooth pearlescent skin of her arms.”

What parent hasn’t said to a small child, I could just gobble you up? But O’Farrell says it better. This book is about what happens when this man gets a phone call that his mother is home alone and frightened because his father has disappeared.

Michael Francis, Monica, and Aoife all return home from their own precarious lives to attend to their difficult, demanding mother, who has been lonely for years as an unwelcome Irish woman in England. (Yesterday’s refugees.)

Michael Francis lives nearby, his dreams of being a professor in America abandoned because “He’s gone and knocked up a Prod” as Aoife so delicately put it. While their Irish Catholic background colours the story, it isn’t the whole story.

Monica is divorced (oh the shame of it) and living with a new partner and his kids. She doesn’t want kids – she was nine when her mother had a difficult pregnancy with Aoife, and then Aoife was a noisy, crying, complaining, fractious baby whom only Monica could manage. So manage she did. For years. Forever, it seems. And she's told Aoife this.

Aoife never coped with school, never learned to read, and has fled to New York where she works for a photographer and is falling for a nice guy who’s hiding from the draft. She has hidden her disability, but it’s kept her on edge, always. She is cut from a different cloth, and an interesting one it is, too.

These are Gretta’s troubled children, who have come home to investigate their father’s disappearance, but who are out at the moment, so the house is empty. I completely relate to this:

“It’s this kind of emptiness she likes—signs of people around, their discarded possessions left as a reassurance of their return. Monica’s jacket on a hanger, Michael Francis’s car key on the hall table, that scarf of Aoife’s draped over a peg.”

England is in drought, suffering a heatwave, and the heat permeates every movement of this family as they look for clues to find their father. Each resents being there, and they fall back into their old patterns of parent/sibling bickering (as we do). Each thinks he or she has more troubles than anyone, until a family bombshell is dropped late in the story.

The first half of the book moves very slowly – the heat, perhaps? – as we learn about the characters. And I did get frustrated for a while. Still, I’ll be left thinking about these people for a long time, I suspect.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one seems to understand the dynamics between individuals better than Maggie O’Farrell. Instructions for a heatwave is a staggering look at what it is to be a part of a family: to love, to hate, to lie and be lied to, to forgive or beg for forgiveness you never get, to keep secrets and to share them.

For the most part, this is the story of three Irish siblings, Michael Francis and Monica, and the late arrival, Aoife (ee-fah). The children have been raised in London, but their mother is very Irish, a staunch Catholic, and a bit overbearing. Michael Francis and Monica seem to have stable married lives, despite having obvious problems, but it is Aoife who poses the most concern. Aoife has had problems that no one understands, going back to her childhood, and everyone around her has written them off to rebelliousness and lack of effort. The girls were very close until some event, that we are initially not privy to, causes a breach and leaves them distanced both physically and emotionally.

This is where we find them at the beginning of the story, and then there is a crisis in the form of their father going missing, and the three siblings and their mother are drawn together to try and find what has happened to him. In the process, of course, a lot is revealed and these individuals are forced to face both one another and themselves.

This careful revelation of a family struggle could not be more beautifully done. In the midst of an unbearable heatwave, the lives and emotions of a lifetime boil over in prose that is mesmerizing and scintillating. O’Farrell’s descriptions are especially beautiful when the setting becomes Ireland.

He remembers this exactly, the shock of driving on a beach, the soft expressive feel of wheels over sand, the rows of waves sliding past. He pictures suddenly an overgrown garden lined with a stone wall, a window looking out over grass and sea. He wants to say, I remember, I remember now, but he doesn’t. He keeps the words in his head, shut inside. He crouches nearer to the suitcases, he watches as the island approaches them, its green shape the back of a sleeping sea monster, his father steering the wheel.

I loved this book so much. It spoke to me. Ah, but that is what Maggie O’Farrell always does–she speaks to me, to only me, when I am reading her. It is as if she has opened me up and exposed little pieces of me to the world.

–What he finds hardest about family life is that, just when you think you have a handle on what’s going on, everything changes.

–Gretta sits herself down at the table. Robert has arranged everything she needs: a plate, a knife, a bowl with a spoon, a pat of butter, a jar of jam. It is in such small acts of kindness that people know they are loved.

–She sits there and feels the loneliness and the lack of him.

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 🥵🥵🥵🥵
Multiple heatwaves happening here, including a real one that struck Britain in July of 1976, like the one going on here in California in July, 2021 . . . and beyond sadly.
It's getting to me. I'm cranky, my flowers are thirsty due to drought, I have to wake at dawn to get anything accomplished before succumbing to cabin fever the rest of the day or heading to the coast. But it's great for cozy reading in front of the air conditioner.
Maggie O'Farrell could write the minutes for our community services board meetings and I'd read it and like it, a lot, as I did this story about messy family relationships and how they go off course, fail one another, crash and burn. No one does it better.

[S.A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book dithers like an elderly woman pondering what flavor of Cesar dog food to feed to her spoiled schnauzer. It dithers like my last rambling sentence.

The main reason I finished reading the novel was to see if anything mind-blowing actually happened. Hell, I would have settled for nose-blowing or blink-inducing. To me, the huge secret that matriarch Gretta Riordan held back from her children had the strength of a butterfly burp. Perhaps its a culture thing and I'm out of the loop. But to me, Mammy Gretta is pretty much a domestic monster. It's a wonder her adult children still speak to her.

The characters all deserved to be hit in the head by a shovel at one time or another. If I was related to these people, I'd disown them in a blink. Once in a while I'd experience a flash of sympathy for their largely self-created plights, but the flashes died quick deaths. Mostly I reached for the shovel.

Well, I need to backtrack to one character: Aoife, the youngest of the three Riordan siblings and the only one who had the sense to run away from her family. Aoife put the Atlantic ocean between her and her family. She's one of the reasons I finished the book. I just hoped to hell she would tell SOMEONE about her serious problem and get help. Then again, here I also blame Gretta, the domestic monster, for not helping her difficult child move past her learning disability. At least Aoife's story does have resolution.

In short, the writing was engaging. For me, aside from Aoife, the impossible, selfish characters and dreary storyline dragged down the novel.

[JanB · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up
This is yet another book that is well-written and has all the ingredients for a great read but fell a little short. I enjoy novels featuring family dramas, dysfunctional families and complicated sibling relationships. This book has all that in spades.

When their father, Robert, disappears, the adult Riordan children gather in their hometown, and with Gretta, their mother, try to piece together the clues and find him. Along the way, long-held family secrets are revealed, and misunderstandings and grievances are aired. And while I don’t need a book’s ending to be neatly tied in a bow, to deny the reader some type of resolution/closure to the entire premise of the novel felt a little like cheating.

I did find it amusing to call 90 degrees a strange heatwave when 90 degree summer days with heat indexes in the triple digits are the norm for me.

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can you hear that sound? It’s me sighing in contentment as I turn the last page. Maggie O’Farrell has done it again- she’s captured my heart and kept me reading non stop.

The time is July, 1976. London is experiencing an historic heat wave and drought ( true fact)..
Robert Riordan tells his wife Greta that he is going to buy a newspaper and then never returns. She calls her three children to enlist their help and support. Over the next 3 days as they try to figure out where their father has gone to, old animosities between them come to light. Secrets are slowly revealed.

“Why is it that twenty four hours in the company of your family is capable of reducing you to a teenager?”

There is nothing I didn’t love about this book. The family dynamics certainly rang true. We learn about each family member- we get their back stories. I felt a special affinity with Aoife- the misunderstood youngest and third child, who was such a handful as a baby and child, her mother could barely cope. It kind of reminded me of my third child- so busy and volatile.
What I was left reflecting on as I read was the importance of communication! Aoife tells no one about her problem, so how can anyone help her? Monica thinks Aoife betrayed her, but does she ask? No. Gretta found something out about her husband, but does she ask or talk to him about it? No. Maggie O’Farrell knows and understands human nature. That is what makes this book so special.

The focal point of this novel is family! Love them or hate them, you are forever tied. When a crisis happens, family is who you want by your side. This family has burrowed a space in my heart, in a true Maggie O’Farrell style.

After finishing this book, I have now read all of Maggie O’Farrell’s books. Other than one, I have loved them all. I can hardly wait for the next one.

Published: 2013

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Robert Riordan, a retired bank manager, walks away from his London home early one morning in the middle of a rare (but true!) heatwave in the summer of 1976. By the end of the day, his eccentric and chatty wife Gretta finally admits he hasn't just gone out for a walk and reluctantly reaches out to her three adult children, Michael Francis, Monica, and Aoife to alert them their dad's missing.

So begins this family drama that explores the ties that bind and those that unravel in families where secrets are as inevitable as misunderstandings, hurt and unconditional affection. Through the most deft integration of multiple points-of-view, often switching seamlessly from one paragraph to another, O'Farrell takes us on a deep dive into each sibling's life, with Gretta hovering in the near distance, her neuroses both unsettling and comical.

Michael Francis, having giving up his dreams of a Ph.D and life in America to marry his pregnant girlfriend, is now a quietly suffering high school history teacher and father of two adorable little kids. He's burdened by guilt over a short-lived affair and so feels he can't much complain when his wife, Claire, suddenly decides to pursue her own degree in history, spending hours away from home with her new friends from university. Monica, whose husband left her for another woman, is remarried to a nice but emotionally distant antiques dealer. Monica is in direct competition for his affection with his two young daughters, who spend weekends at their house, the house he used to share with his ex-wife. Monica, who miscarried her only pregnancy years before, tries desperately to connect with the girls, but they have eyes only for Daddy. Aoife, the youngest by several years, a decidedly unexpected late pregnancy, was a difficult, demanding, neurotic kid whose manic energy forced her mother onto tranquilizers and Monica to step in as substitute mother. Preternaturally smart, she's also functionally illiterate. After a terrible incident years before, she and Monica stopped speaking and Aoife fled to New York to find her way alone, hiding in her own secrets.

When Michael Francis, Monica and Aoife converge on the family home to unravel the knot of their father's sudden disappearance, their shared past collides with their current turmoils in a rollercoaster of subplots and laugh/cry moments. Despite the heaviness of the siblings' baggage, there is a lightness to the narrative that is just shy of farcical. It's this astonishing nuance that makes the characters so relatable and lovable. It's easy to overlook that the main thrust of the premise: why did Dad disappear and where is he? is not all that big of a deal. The story is less about the central mystery and more about the mystery of family and forgiveness.

I marvel at Maggie O'Farrell's skill in constructing whole worlds made up of the tiniest of details, while building a foundation of larger themes: growing up Irish in Great Britain in the Sixties; the power of the Catholic Church to instill guilt and shame nearly from the moment of conception; what it means to be a self-actualized human. Instructions for a Heatwave is a both a wonderfully entertaining and moving novel.

[Chari · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ Que bonita historia de nuevo sobre los miembros de una familia, me ha gustado mucho. Quiero más O’Farrell books!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is set during the heatwave of 1976, which I remember very well. Oddly enough, I read the book during recent hot weather, and it made the heat feel even more tangible. The novel centres around the Riordan family. Gretta is the matriarch and, whatever the weather, she bakes soda bread three times a week. Her day starts as normal - she bakes and husband Robert leaves at his usual time to buy a newspapr. He doesn't return...

Robert's disappearance leads to Gretta's grown children rallying round to help. There are Michael and Monica, who are both experiencing marital problems, and youngest daughter Aiofe who lives in New York. This is a novel about family and the secrets, allegiances and relationships which are shared between the different members. Maggie O'Farrell presents a realistic portrayal of a large, Irish Catholic family and a wonderfully evocative portrayal of that never ending summer. I have never read anything by O'Farrell before, but I am sure I will devour her backlist, after this stunning book. As well as being an enjoyable personal read, it would have much to offer reading groups, with lots to discuss, and I enjoyed it immensely.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book about a family and their secrets during the British heatwave of 1976, but I found it heavy and slow. Although it was published in 2013—just three years before the last O’Farrell novel I read, This Must Be the Place, and five years before the magnificent I Am, I Am, I Am which introduced me to O’Farrell—this felt like early work whose style is not yet refined. For my taste, there was just too much of it: too many words; too many serial lists of nouns, adjectives, references; too much flashing back; too many tangents; and too much redundancy. It needs cutting and tightening. Also, oddly there was not a lot of reference to the heat. It was as if the story was plunked down into a historical period, but there was no sense of how that heat felt and how people would have constantly been sweating and moving differently because of it, and therefore when the terrain changes in the last section of the book when the disgruntled and irascible family goes back to Ireland to a cottage on the sea, there is no huge dramatic shift from sticky, heavy overheated, secret-burdened weight to the freedom of the sea.

That said, the language is gorgeous, the storytelling wonderfully complex, the characters are so real their pain affects the reader viscerally, and as with the other books I’ve read, it all comes together in the end. So even at her heaviest, Maggie O’Farrell is a splendid writer and I’m glad to have read this as part of my Maggie O’F binge.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Why is it that twenty-four hours in the company of your family is capable of reducing you to a teen-ager? Is this retrogression cumulative? Will she continue to lose a decade a day?"

You got that right Maggie! Family dynamics when a crisis occurs! Fun times all around!

Robert Riordan walks out one morning to buy a paper, but never comes home. Gretta calls her adult children, they come home to try and figure out what happened and where he is. Complicating matters is that every one of them has seemingly insurmountable problems in their own personal lives, in addition to problems with each other, in addition to an Irish Catholic mother who skirts around problems instead of facing them. All of this occurring in 1976 during an historic heat wave in England. Nothing simple in this novel.

As usual, Maggie O'Farrell weaves a fascinating story of a family coming together to do what families do best: fight and scream and switch loyalties and tell lies and make mistaken assumptions, til finally, in the end, they come together to do what needs to be done to help each other.

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

She sits there and feels her aloneness and the lack of him, and she looks out at the plane trees, their yellow, crinkled-up leaves, motionless in the still, heavy air. Her hands are folded on her chest, her ankles crossed. So, she makes herself think, to block out the awfulness of his baffling absence, there we have it. Monica in the kitchen, clattering about with dishes. Aoife in the bedroom. Michael Francis keeping his head down somewhere, no doubt.
The dry leaves of the trees outside the window could be a photograph, she thinks, the way they are so still.
*
How is it possible, when there are so many people in the world, for a life to be so shockingly solitary?
*
She has given up, of late, trying to understand why things happen. There is no use in that line of thought, no use at all. What will happen will happen and there is often no reason at all

[Karina · Rating 5 out of 5]

"She remembers after they announced their engagement, being struck by how solitary he was. No parents, no siblings, no cousins or friends: there seemed to be no one for him to tell about their marriage. It was a shock to her because she was the sort who gathered people around her, wherever she was. How was it possible for someone like him to get so far in life and yet be so utterly alone?" (PG. 163)

I'll make this brief as possible. This author is amazing and she has a place in my top 5 all-time favorites. How can she write the way she does? O'Farrell reminds me of a modern day Maeve Binchy and in my book that is a high honor.

This unspectacular family, the Riordan's, is now spectacular. I was drawn into this family drama right from the beginning. I was never bored trying to pronounce Aoife or trying to work out the sibling dynamic. This was an era (I grew up in this) where you don't air out your "dirty laundry" but it affects your psyche and there is so much resentment of bottling up emotion or hurt but when you try and talk to your parents about it they are always the victim and you are the problematic person bringing "the old stuff." I felt connected to the family. I feel like the Irish and Mexican culture have so much in common. They were all messed up but had redeeming qualities so as a reader you can't love or hate them. They are just humans trying to right their mistakes and live happily despite life being stressful and challenging, like the rest of us in real life.

I really loved this so much and can't wait to read her other novels. She is my new literary homie.

[Carmel Hanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A father uncharacteristically disappears.

The family gathers to figure out what happened, find him, and draw support from each other.

But...years of alliances, secrets, and estrangement tag along with those good intentions, infiltrating the interactions, scrambling the forward momentum.

Ah, the messiness of family and family history. No one does it better than O'Farrell. Coming from a large family, these imperfect people resonated with me. The misunderstandings, assumptions, ineffective communications, unspoken truths, all forming concentric circles around the relationships, pushing them each farther and farther away from each other and the core of family. We know where they are within those circles, but not how they got there, until O'Farrell gradually, expertly, provides the missing details and the slot machine of insight makes your head go crazy with noise as matching things slide to a stop, aligned...and you mutter, "of course".

"But by evening, she is always ready, her grief behind her, hidden, like a deformity she must cover up. Hair up. Makeup on. Supper on the range. She will make this work; she will not go back; she will not let on to anyone ; she will not show them that she's been beaten again."

We go to great lengths to hide that which feels shaming, embarrassing, "less than" from others. We fear judgement, and in the fearing, we pretend; we hide. And then we estrange. We alienate. We fail to know each other, truly. We fail to let ourselves be known.

His father minus his mother is an unsolvable equation. His silence is leavened by her loquaciousness, his order and impassivity the counterpoint to her chaos and drama. Robert unanimated by Gretta is something none of them has ever seen."

And as we alienate, we forget all the invisible ties that still bind us, or could if acknowledged.

Monica, her own sister, sidestepped her, looked through her or past her, as if she weren't there. It was an act that denied everything, that said: we never shared a room, I never once took your hand to cross the road, it wasn't me who bound your head when you cut it open on a railing, you did not grow up wearing my cast-off clothes, you never spooned tea into my mouth as I lay ill....."

The one constant I've experienced in working with people and living my own life is how often people slide into these family dynamics, how often people lament spending time with siblings or parents, how diminished people can feel based on interactions flavored with personalities and family experiences. O'Farrell taps into the commonalities many of us have experienced when assembling her cast of characters and events. This novel was no exception, and created some interesting conversation when read with my group. Thanks D and C and K!

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard for those of us who live in Australia, are used to extreme heat and who have seen droughts go on for years, to imagine England in the middle of a heatwave and drought. But that is the scene in 1976 and it it’s based on real events. Into that too real situation in London recently retired Robert Riordan, formally of Ireland, tells his wife Gretta he is going to buy a paper. When he does not come back Gretta calls together their adult children consisting of Michael Francis, and Monica and Aoife who is in New York. Each member of this family has secrets that they are keeping from the others. Secrets that affect relationships. When some of those secrets come out as secrets tend to do, they cause a lot of heartache, anger and upheaval.
I thought all the characters were well portrayed, even though I never particularly warmed to any them. They are all complex characters. The settings and times are also well conveyed. It gave a great picture of a family dealing with a lot of issues and it was interesting to look at the way siblings relate to each other. I found it an extremely involving novel and enjoyed it, although I had some reservations about the way it ended.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another spot-on tale of family and romantic relationships – O’Farrell always gets the emotional tenor just right. As with The Hand That First Held Mine, this novel is narrated in the present tense, which I acknowledge can be irksome, but again, here she manages it perfectly; it’s a handy tool for lending a sense of immediacy and reality.

You may spot hints of Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (a family patriarch goes out for a walk but doesn’t come back), All the Beggars Riding by Lucy Caldwell (family secrets and marriages by another name), and The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (a major character is desperately hiding the fact that she can’t read), but the psychological and linguistic precision is all O’Farrell’s own.

Her descriptive language is unfailingly elegant. I love how she opens with the heat as the most notable character: “It inhabits the house like a guest who has outstayed his welcome: it lies along corridors, it circles around curtains, it lolls heavily on sofas and chairs.”

[Lisa (NY) · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4+] Maggie O'Farrell's exquisite writing held me captive in this novel about a family in search for their father. She is so skillful at exposing the essence of family dynamics. The three adult children have a complex history with each other - each of them is flawed and at times difficult. Yet, I loved spending time with all of them. I was especially intrigued by Aoife.

[Elizabeth George]

Maggie O'Farrell writes like a dream, creating complex and unforgettable characters as well as a dazzling sense of time and place. The book takes place during the unbearable heat wave that struck England in 1976. It moves back and forth through time as the writer peels back layer after layer of family dynamics. It's brilliant, and I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it.

[Eylül Görmüş · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bu kitabı bu kadar çok sevmeyi beklemiyordum - vuruldum resmen. İrlandalı yazar Maggie O'Farrell'in Cehennem Sıcakları için Talimatlar'ı daha konvansiyonel ve doğrusal akan romanları seven okurlar için belki biraz zorlayıcı olabilir ama tam benim kalemim bir kitap çıktı açıkçası. Bir ters bir düz örgü gibi örmüş kitabı yazar; zamanda ileri-geri gidişlerine, ayrıntılardan vardığı incelikli iç görülere, hakikati yavaş yavaş kazıyıp adeta okura damla damla sunmasına, her zamanki gibi muazzam biçimde derinleştirdiği karakterlerine... Her şeyine bayıldım.

Öyle tuhaf ki - bu kitabı okurken insanlara başka türlü baktığımı fark ettim. Etrafımdaki insanları daha çok gözlemledim; Maggie O'Farrell'ın öğrettiği biçimde bakmaya, küçük mimiklerdeki anlamları yakalamaya çalışırken, hiç tanımadığım; yoldan geçen, vapurda göz göze geldiğim, karşıdan karşıya geçerken yan yana beklediğim insanlarla bir tür duygudaşlık hissederken buldum kendimi. Ve bir kitabın insana bunu yapabilmesi ne büyük bir kudrettir!

Kitabı bitirdiğinizde tüm soruların cevaplanmasından hoşlanan bir okursanız, bu kitaba bulaşmayın. Ama soruların yeni sorular doğurmasından hoşlanıyorsanız ve hayatın aslında bir tür cevapsız sorular bütünü olduğu gerçeğiyle barışıksanız, siz de bayılırsınız bu kitaba.

1976 yazındayız. İngiltere'nin tarihindeki en büyük kuraklıklardan biri yaşanıyor. İnsanı bezdiren, bitiren bir sıcak. Kuraklık kanunu çıkarılmış, su kullanımına çok ciddi kısıtlar getirilmiş. Yaşlı ve emekli bir adam ve evine bağlı bir koca ve baba olan Robert bir gün evden çıkıp gidiyor. Kimseye bir şey demeden, bankadaki tüm parasını çekip kayboluyor. Bu gizemi çözmek için annelerinin yanına gelen üç kardeşin aralarındaki kırılgan bağlar, öfkeler, affedilememiş suçlar, anılar bir bir ortalığa saçılıyor.

Ama belki de bunların önemi yok - Maggie O'Farrell, artık "ne yazdığından çok nasıl yazdığını" önemsediğim o müstesna yazarlardan biri benim için. Dolayısıyla bu öyküde de anlatma biçimine duyduğum hayranlık her şeyin önüne geçti. Katman katman açılan, derinleşen, nazik kelimelerle insan ruhunun her yerine nüfuz eden bir kitap.

Ve... Yine baskısı yok. :( Umarım tez zamanda basılır diyerek bitireyim.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my second Maggie O' Farrell novel, and since I really, really loved the first one, I thought that standard would continue with Instructions for a Heatwave. Unfortunately, this one was quite different, and certainly not in a positive way.

The entire plot complete with characters was just tiresome. Gretta, our main character has a secret, and I only really persevered to the end in order to discover what it was, and seriously; it wasn't worth it.

Gretta, is built around manipulation, and she uses this frequently throughout the story. She does not make for for pleasant reading.

The siblings were all one track-minded, and instead of feeling sympathy towards their misfortunes, I quite honestly just wanted to shake them.

The ending was completely abrupt, and I was left feeling quite underwhelmed, and in need of a strong mug of good coffee.

What happened, Maggie?

[Dem · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O Farrell is a very enjoyable and entertaining novel and I was really excited to read this book having loved The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.

The story is set in London in July 1976. 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.

Maggie O Farrell’s writing is as usual excellent and from page one you get drawn into the Riordan family drama with its twists and turns and its realistic characters. I love the easy way the author draws her characters and she sets the scenes with such ease that you feel you are right there in the story.

While I enjoyed the novel I felt the story dragged and while there were twists and turns and surprises they failed to make an impact on the story and just seemed to hang. The mystery of the missing father seemed to take a back seat within the story and I felt it was never really explained. I did enjoy the novel but did not live up to the wonderful The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughts soon.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear Book Club that meets at the library every third Wednesday (which means in two days),

I am really sorry. I can't do it. I can't afford to read anything that I don't love/like/enjoy anymore. This definitely does not fit that requirement. I hear myself sighing loudly each time I pick this up. I got to page 110. I'm so sorry, Book Club. I know I DNF-ed 4 selections in the past year, but these books (Miss Timmins' School for Girls, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Clara and Mr. Tiffany, and now this one) are just not books that I can dig. But next month is going to be awesome. At least for me. So I promise I will make it up to you in May. I will be super enthusiastic to discuss our May read! And even though I didn't finish this (because I thought it was slow, uninteresting, and had way too much superfluous material) I am still looking forward to hearing your thoughts and enjoying your company. xoxoxo

Lisa

[Sub_zero · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

Poco después de empezar a leer esta novela, la sombra de Las correcciones comenzó a revolotear sobre la historia que aquí nos presenta Maggie O'Farrell, prestigiosa escritora británica de la que sin duda alguna debo probar algo más. Salvando las -por un lado, enormes- distancias, ambas abordan con extrema meticulosidad, pericia narrativa y un finísimo sentido del humor los entresijos, recovecos y oscuros sótanos de esa solemne institución doméstica que a veces tantos problemas supone y tantas obligaciones acarrea. Situada a mediados de los 70 en un barrio residencial londinense donde una sofocante subida de las temperaturas está provocando comportamientos extraños entre los miembros de la familia protagonista, Instrucciones para una ola de calor es una historia de resonantes ecos 'franzenianos' que invita a inmiscuirnos hasta la médula en la turbulenta psique colectiva de los Riordan, cuyo cabeza de familia desaparece una mañana de manera repentina e inicia así los mecanismos de una búsqueda en la que secretos, sorpresas y viejas rencillas fraternales acabarán saliendo a la luz. Divertida, mordaz, íntima y salpicada de giros sobresalientes, la novela de O'Farrell consigue deslumbrar a los amantes de este tipo de historias por el gran elenco de personajes del que echa mano su autora: una madre bonachona que administra amor e informaciones peliagudas con suma estrategia y tres hijos con antecedentes tan diversos como singulares que se han cansado de interpretar sus respectivos roles familiares. Una lectura muy recomendable.