London during the remarkably hot summer of 1976 is the setting for Maggie O’Farrell’s sixth novel, Instructions for a Heatwave, and although the actual temperature would seem quite ordinary to most Australians, her story of a family suffocating in its own drama is perceptive, enjoyable and intense.

The disappearance of sixty-something Robert, father of three grown-up children and husband of Gretta, is where we begin. But in order to find out where he’s got to, the story goes backwards as well as forwards, delving into the family history of these Irish Catholics.

Meanwhile, in the 1976 ‘present’, the three siblings scrabble about for our attention as they deal with the mystery as a dysfunctional unit, reunited utterly against their will. First-born Monica is gripped by an anxiety common in eldest daughters, while middle child Michael Francis is fed up with his lot (a wife who can’t stand the sight of him and two eccentric children). The youngest, Aiofe, who has been living in New York, is at once ashamed of herself and bolder than the other two put together. The head-hopping narrative churns up our perspective on each sibling and wittily demonstrates how families get so tangled up in misunderstanding that they can hardly be in the same room.

The level of dysfunction isn’t particularly shocking – that’s not O’Farrell’s style. She’s a sensual writer who cleverly involves us in every character, teasing us about whose side we should be on. But for me her triumph is Gretta, the impossible matriarch whose backstory deserves to be a novel of its own. My one disappointment was that the level of ambition O’Farrell showed in her last novel, The Hand That First Held Mine, has eased off here in terms of storytelling. However, that was a particularly hard act to follow, and this is still a very worthwhile read.

Emily Gale