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Instructions for a Heatwave
by O'Farrell, Maggie
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Acceptable
- ISBN 10
- 0755358791
- ISBN 13
- 9780755358793
- Seller
-
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Tinder Press. Used - Acceptable. May have underlining, highlighting, margin notes, remainder marks, inscriptions, book plates, tears, significant wear, and/or a missing box or discs. Damaged item.
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
On Dec 3 2013, CloggieDownunder said:
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
- Magers and Quinn Booksellers (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1393406
- Title
- Instructions for a Heatwave
- Author
- O'Farrell, Maggie
- Book Condition
- Used - Acceptable
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0755358791
- ISBN 13
- 9780755358793
- Publisher
- Tinder Press
- Place of Publication
- Uk
- This edition first published
- 2013
Terms of Sale
Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Please contact us immediately if you are unsatisfied with your order. Returns accepted within 3 weeks of delivery. All returns must include original packing slip.
About the Seller
Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Biblio member since 2006
Minneapolis, Minnesota
About Magers and Quinn Booksellers
Magers and Quinn Booksellers is the Twin Cities' largest independent book store. We sell new, used, rare, and out-of-print books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Remainder
- Book(s) which are sold at a very deep discount to alleviate publisher overstock. Often, though not always, they have a remainder...
- Acceptable
- A non-traditional book condition description that generally refers to a book in readable condition, although no standard exists...