I am cheating here and copying and pasting the summary of the book from the Westchester Library Sysetem's website. I can't say it better:
A sweeping family drama, in which the disappearance of a family
patriarch forces three adult siblings to gather together to find him and
to confront what they really know about their father and themselves.
It's the summer of 1976 and London is in the grip of a record-breaking
heat wave when Gretta Riordan discovers that her newly retired husband,
Robert, has cleaned out his bank account and vanished. Now, Gretta's
three children converge in their mother's home for the first time in
years: Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing;
Monica, with two stepdaughters who despise her and an ugly secret that
has driven a wedge between herself and the little sister she once
adored; and Aoife, the youngest of the Riordans, now living in
Manhattan, a smart, immensely resourceful young woman who has arranged
her entire life to conceal her illiteracy. As the siblings tease out
clues about their father's whereabouts, they navigate rocky pasts and
long-held secrets, until at last their search brings them to their
ancestral village in Ireland, where the truth of their parents'
lives--and their own--is suddenly revealed. Wise, lyrical, instantly
engrossing, Instructions for a Heat Wave is a richly satisfying
page-turner from a writer of exceptional intelligence and grace.
I really liked this book and the writing. The end was so satisfying to me and the passages of the various characters when they "find themselves" very moving.
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