“An affecting portrait of a father’s love for his son.”―TIME, “100 Must-Read Books of 2022”

“Delaney’s book is ultimately about all-encompassing, heart-exploding love.”―The New York Times

“Brave, harrowing, inspiring . . . A wonder.”―People

“Inspirational . . . With the worst thing that can happen, with love and humor, all illuminated by a kind of costly grace.”―Mother Jones, “The Books We Needed in 2022”

“Delaney is a phenomenal storyteller, and this memoir is tender, vulnerable, warm, and darkly funny.”―BuzzFeed

“A devastatingly candid account of a parent’s grief that will have readers laughing and crying in equal measure . . . Heart-wrenching and impressively self-aware.”―Kirkus (starred review)

“An intense, heartbreaking memoir.”―Margaret Atwood on Twitter

“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.”―Patricia Lockwood

“This book is so rich with grief and love and pain and humor and an incandescent, purifying, flame-throwing wrath.”―Lauren Groff

“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

In 2016, Rob Delaney’s 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 costar 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 vivid, bodily impact of grief and the blind, furious rage that followed through to the forceful, unstoppable love that remains. In the madness of his grief, Delaney grapples with the fragile miracle of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind.

Delaney’s memoir—profound, painful, full of emotion, and bracingly honest—offers solace to those who have faced devastation and shows us how grace may appear even in the darkest times.

PRODUCT DETAILS

ISBN: 9781954118317
Price: $25.00
On-sale date: 11/29/2022
Weight: 1.48 lbs.