A visceral and deeply personal memoir of loss, remembrance, and love.
In 2016, Rob Delaney’s beautiful, bright one-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family had moved from Los Angeles to London with their two young boys when Rob’s wife was pregnant with Henry, their third. The move was an adventure and a challenge that would bind them even more tightly together as they navigated the novelty of London, the culture clashes, and the funhouse experience of Rob’s fame—thanks to his role as cocreator and star of the hit series Catastrophe. Henry’s illness was a cataclysm that changed everything about their lives. Amid the hospital routine, surgeries, and brutal treatments, they found a newfound community of nurses, aides, caregivers, and fellow parents contending with the unthinkable. Two years later, Henry died, and his family watched their world fall away to reveal the things that matter most.
A Heart That Works is Delaney’s intimate, unflinching, and fiercely funny exploration of what happened—from the harrowing illness to the bodily impact of grief and the blind, furious rage that followed, through to the forceful, unstoppable love that remains. Delaney grapples with the fragile miracle of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind. His memoir offers solace to those who have faced devastation and shows us how grace may appear even in the darkest times.
Rob Delaney is a comedian, actor, writer, and the author of a previous memoir, Rob Delaney: Mother Wife Sister Human Warrior Falcon Yardstick Turban Cabbage. He is widely known as the BAFTA-winning cocreator and costar of the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime comedy Catastrophe, which broadcasts in more than 130 countries.
“As heartbreaking as the book may be, Delaney’s pitch-black humor buoys even the toughest moments…Delaney’s book is ultimately about all-encompassing, heart-exploding love.”
—New York Times
“I could have read about Henry for a thousand pages. It is impossible not to share in Delaney’s tenderness, his attention, his anger, his night-black humor, and impossible not to see his son through his eyes: loved, learning, smiling ecstatically. I will turn to this book again and again, to feel deeply and to learn about this world from Henry.”
—Patricia Lockwood, author of No One Is Talking About This and Priestdaddy
“Brave, harrowing, inspiring…a wonder.”
—People Best Books of Fall 2022
“I love this book, and it is a tough ride, filled with grace and beauty and unimaginable pain. I cried a number of times, laughed a lot, grieved with the Delaneys, and underlined so many moments of courage, exposure, humanity, and the deepest meaning. All I can say is, Wow.”
—Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird and Dusk, Night, Dawn
“An affecting portrait of a father’s love for his son…. The vivid descriptions of Henry’s treatments—and the toddler’s beauty and resilience in the face of suffering—underline just how powerful it can be to care for someone else.”
—Time, 100 Must-Read Books of 2022
“I don’t think I've ever read anything before that captures the enormity and power of parental love, how radical it is, how transformative and total.”
—Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries, winner of the Man Booker Prize
“An intense, heartbreaking memoir about the illness and death of his toddler son. Will resonate especially deeply [with anyone] who’s lost a loved one, especially a child.”
—Margaret Atwood
“This book is so rich with grief and love and pain and humor and an incandescent, purifying, flame-throwing wrath. Though Delaney can’t bring Henry back, he can—and does—show enough of him to the world to make a reader see him a little bit, know him a little bit, and fully love him. What an unbelievable gift.”
—Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies and Matrix
“In the same league as The Year of Magical Thinking …Delaney is a phenomenal storyteller.”
―Buzzfeed Best Books of Fall 2022
“Emotionally raw, yet masterfully told, A Heart That Works is the incredibly rare book that can move the reader to tears or fury or laughter within moments, if not at the same time. At the heart of this intimate story of coming to terms with death is a stubborn embrace of life itself.”
—Mat Johnson, author of the Invisible Things and Pym
“What a read. Its beauty and pain and humor and anger will help many people. This is a beautiful monument.”
—Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club
“A beautiful howl of a book. A love letter to Delaney’s precious boy. To his wife. His family. To parenthood. It is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and I loved everything about it.”
—Laura Zigman, author of Separation Anxiety and Small World