The stunning new novel from Costa-Novel-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.

Another beautifully written book by Maggie O'Farrell, and it doesn't disappoint. I loved the era, and I loved the Riordan family, who seemed so real, you could believe they really existed! On a totally shallow point, I also *loved* the cover. I've loved all of Maggie's books, although my favourite is still "The Hand That First Held Mine", which is an absolute masterpiece, and I'm keeping everything crossed that it'll be made into a film/tv drama one day.

Taking half a dozen books along to a meet-up with the girls tonight. This is a goodie, so it's sure to be taken!

Snaffled at the meetup at the White Hart tonight, look forward to reading another Maggie O'Farrell