Instructions for a Heatwave

An accomplished debut that excellently conveys the experience of being deaf in a hearing world. A Sign of Her Own gives a fascinating insight into a moment in history when the invention of the telephone was poised to connect countless people, yet deaf communities were being silenced by a movement against the use of sign language. Beautifully written, absorbing and illuminating -- Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies The Riordans will stay in your mind long after you finish this book. They're funny, infuriating and impossible not to love. They feel like family * Irish Times * My favourite kind of novel: big-hearted, psychologically complex and utterly gripping -- Maria Semple, author of <i>Where'd You Go, Bernadette<i> Unputdownable -- Joanna Briscoe, <i>Guardian</i> Instantly appealing...magical * Daily Telegraph * Masterful...holds you on an exquisite knife-edge * Marie Claire * An author at the top of her game * Sunday Express * O'Farrell's language is lissom, airborne, mostly seamless, her characters flawed, contradictory, aggravating and instantly knowable. This is a deceptively easy, effortlessly true-feeling novel; a total delight * Metro * A quite wonderful novel...at once enthralling, page turning and atmospheric * Irish Examiner *

Maggie O'Farrell is the author of HAMNET, Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020, and the memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, both Sunday Times no. 1 bestsellers. Her novels include AFTER YOU'D GONE, MY LOVER'S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT, which was shortlisted for the Women's Prize. She is also the author of three books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO, THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK and WHEN THE STAMMER CAME TO STAY. She lives in Edinburgh.