An Amazon Best Book of December 2022: Rob Delaney is known for his laugh-out-loud performance on Catastrophe , but this memoir isn’t about the celebrity limelight. It’s about the death of his third child, Henry. It’s about the fourteen months that “gorgeous” baby Henry spent in the hospital for a brain tumor and how he and his family cope(d). Delaney shares his unabashed emotions—his rage and anger, humility and humor, anguish and confusion, and the resounding euphoria of being lovestruck by his son—with such raw honesty, that his feelings tumble together to create a portrait of what it is to live and what it is to love. While I can promise that your eyes will well with tears for Delaney and his family, I can also promise that your heart will soar with the twinkly wonder of parenthood and humanity. A Heart That Works is a book that belongs on your bedside table or on a shelf next to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking —it’s that memorable, and that affecting. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Product Description
New York Times bestseller The New Yorker *Best Books of 2022 Entertainment Weekly Best Books of 2022 USA Today Best Books of 2022 Time *100 Must-Read Books of 2022 Mother Jones Books We Needed in 2022 People Fall Must Read * 2022 BuzzFeed Fall Reading pick**
A visceral and deeply personal memoir by the star of the Amazon Prime series Catastrophe ,about love, loss, and fatherhood.
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 co-creator and co-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 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.
Review
“An affecting portrait of a father’s love for his son.” —Time , 100 Must-Read Books of 2022
“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
“Brave, harrowing, inspiring . . . a wonder.”—People
“Inspirational….Read this book not for Delaney’s celebrity nor even for a good cry but for something more: a rare picture of the family coping 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. A Heart That Works is in the same league as The Year of Magical Thinking in its stark, clarified articulation of grief, and the delusion and disbelief that accompany the tragedy.”—BuzzFeed
“A devastatingly candid account of a parent’s grief that will have readers laughing and crying in equal measure….Few would attempt to bring humor and levity to such an unbearably sad story, but Delaney manages to do so with grace, sincerity, and warmth….Heart-wrenching and impressively self-aware.”—Kirkus Reviews ( starred)
* “An intense, heartbreaking memoir about the illness and death of his toddler son. Will resonate deeply [with anyone] who's lost a loved one, especially a child.”— *Margaret Atwood on Twitter
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Brutally honest, powerful, like a beautiful howl. A love letter to Delaney’s precious boy. To his wife. His family. To parenthood. It is a book that will help so many grieving parents. I loved everything about it.”— Laura Zigman, author of Separation Anxiety and Small World
About the Author
Rob Delaney is a comedian, actor, and writer. He is widely known as the award-winning co-creator and co-star of the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime comedy Catastrophe. He is the author of a memoir Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.
Description:
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of December 2022: Rob Delaney is known for his laugh-out-loud performance on Catastrophe , but this memoir isn’t about the celebrity limelight. It’s about the death of his third child, Henry. It’s about the fourteen months that “gorgeous” baby Henry spent in the hospital for a brain tumor and how he and his family cope(d). Delaney shares his unabashed emotions—his rage and anger, humility and humor, anguish and confusion, and the resounding euphoria of being lovestruck by his son—with such raw honesty, that his feelings tumble together to create a portrait of what it is to live and what it is to love. While I can promise that your eyes will well with tears for Delaney and his family, I can also promise that your heart will soar with the twinkly wonder of parenthood and humanity. A Heart That Works is a book that belongs on your bedside table or on a shelf next to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking —it’s that memorable, and that affecting. —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
Product Description
New York Times bestseller The New Yorker *Best Books of 2022 Entertainment Weekly Best Books of 2022 USA Today Best Books of 2022 Time *100 Must-Read Books of 2022 Mother Jones Books We Needed in 2022 People Fall Must Read * 2022 BuzzFeed Fall Reading pick**
A visceral and deeply personal memoir by the star of the Amazon Prime series Catastrophe , about love, loss, and fatherhood.
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 co-creator and co-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 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.
Review
“An affecting portrait of a father’s love for his son.” —Time , 100 Must-Read Books of 2022
“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
“Brave, harrowing, inspiring . . . a wonder.”—People
“Inspirational….Read this book not for Delaney’s celebrity nor even for a good cry but for something more: a rare picture of the family coping 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. A Heart That Works is in the same league as The Year of Magical Thinking in its stark, clarified articulation of grief, and the delusion and disbelief that accompany the tragedy.”—BuzzFeed
“A devastatingly candid account of a parent’s grief that will have readers laughing and crying in equal measure….Few would attempt to bring humor and levity to such an unbearably sad story, but Delaney manages to do so with grace, sincerity, and warmth….Heart-wrenching and impressively self-aware.”—Kirkus Reviews ( starred)
* “An intense, heartbreaking memoir about the illness and death of his toddler son. Will resonate deeply [with anyone] who's lost a loved one, especially a child.”— *Margaret Atwood on Twitter
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Brutally honest, powerful, like a beautiful howl. A love letter to Delaney’s precious boy. To his wife. His family. To parenthood. It is a book that will help so many grieving parents. I loved everything about it.”— Laura Zigman, author of Separation Anxiety and Small World
About the Author
Rob Delaney is a comedian, actor, and writer. He is widely known as the award-winning co-creator and co-star of the critically acclaimed Amazon Prime comedy Catastrophe. He is the author of a memoir Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.