Instructions for a Heatwave
by Maggie O'Farrell
- Used
- Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Good/none
- ISBN 10
- 0755358791
- ISBN 13
- 9780755358793
- Seller
-
Los Angeles, California, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell, published by Tinder Press (2013) imprint of Headline Publishing Group, UK, Printed and Bound in UK by Clays Ltd, London, ISBN 9780755358793, 324 pages, about 5-1/8 x 7-3/4 x 1 in. Paperback book in good condition, covers are bright, glossy, with wear at edges/corners, spine has minor creasing, pages are crisp unmarked but are tanning from age .. July 1976, 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 around the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back .. Maggie O'Farrell is the winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction .. LAX Vespa, Los Angeles - maybe this will do it!-At least you know what you're getting into--Media Mail USPS-you get the copy pictured - carefully Drop kick-packed to protect it - in - transit. 7 Days Coast to Coast, faster if closer.. Instructions Heat wave PB 6587
1 pound Instructions Heat wave PB 6587 GREEN SQ FRNT
Instructions Heat wave PB 6587 GREEN SQ FRNT
Synopsis
Maggie O’Farrell is the author of After You’d Gone, winner of a Betty Trask Award; My Lover’s Lover; The Distance Between Us, winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox; The Hand That First Held Mine, winner of a Costa Novel Award; and Instructions for a Heatwave , shortlisted for the Costa Award.
Reviews
Instructions For A Heatwave is the sixth novel by British author, Maggie O’Farrell. On a July Thursday at the height of Britain’s 1976 heatwave, Robert Riordan goes out as usual for the morning paper but doesn’t return. When no trace of him can be found, his wife, Gretta calls her daughter in Gloucester, Monica, who is having a drama of her own. Eventually, Gretta’s son, Michael Francis manages to contact his younger sister, Aoife in New York, and the siblings come together at their family home to decide what is to be done. It is a gathering filled with tensions, as Aoife and Monica have been estranged for years. Not only that, but undercurrents flow as each character is dealing with shameful secrets of their own. While this could make for heavy going, the dialogue between the characters, the family dynamics and some moments of delicious irony provide a comic relief that lifts the story. As O’Farrell skilfully builds her story, the various mysteries, some from more than thirty years ago, unfold over four days. Abortion, dyslexia, divorce, betrayal, adultery, draft dodging, a dead cat, an Irish convent and a deep abiding love all feature. O’Farrell’s characters are interesting and complex; they are larger than life and so very real. Her prose is a joy to experience: the feel of the heatwave is expertly conveyed and the descriptions are wonderfully evocative. “And then, it seemed to Monica, the baby opened her mouth and started to scream and that she did not stop screaming for a long time. ……She screamed if laid flat, even for a moment…….her legs would work up and down, as if she was a toy with a winding mechanism, her face would crumple in on itself and the room would fill with jagged sounds that could have cut you, if you’d stood too close.” and “She cannot read. She cannot do that thing that other people find so artlessly easy: to see arrangements of inked shapes on a page and alchemise them into meaning.” are just two examples. A brilliant read.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Ruth Reaser LAXVESPA (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 6587
- Title
- Instructions for a Heatwave
- Author
- Maggie O'Farrell
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- none
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First paperback edition
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0755358791
- ISBN 13
- 9780755358793
- Publisher
- Tinder Press
- Place of Publication
- Uk
- Date Published
- 2013
- Pages
- 324 pages
- Size
- about 5-1/8 x 7-3/4 x 1 in
- Keywords
- Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell, published by Tinder Press (2013) imprint of Headline Publishing Group, UK, Printed and Bound in UK by Clays Ltd, London, ISBN 9780755358793, 324 pages, about 5-1/8 x 7-3/4 x 1 in. LAX Vespa, Los Angele
- Bookseller catalogs
- novel; MISC 1; GREEN SQ FRNT;
Terms of Sale
Ruth Reaser LAXVESPA
About the Seller
Ruth Reaser LAXVESPA
About Ruth Reaser LAXVESPA
Glossary
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