A Heart That Works

"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