LoveReading Says
It's the story of what happens when you lose a child, and everything you discover about life in the process. Told in Rob Delaney's wonderful way, with humour (I wasn't sure how, but it works) A Heart That Works is his intimate, unflinching and, incredible exploration of loss.
The book is about Delaney’s son, Henry. His beautiful, bright, gloriously alive son Henry. He was one when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Incomprehensible, but an experience Delaney wants to share, feels like he must share. Delaney, his wife and two sons had just moved to London to begin filming Catastrophe, the show that was to make his name in the UK, when Henry was born. From his heartbreaking diagnosis, to the torturous treatment, and the ultimate unimaginable tragedy of his death, we see and we feel the unbearable pain.
Not for the faint-hearted, but a vital book nevertheless. A book that may help people going through the same situation, and a book that will educate us all about how to deal with loss. A book that is written with wit and maybe confrontational humour, in spite of the subject. We meet a family who use humour as medicine, who come together, bound by love, bound as a unit of care givers. I'm sure writing this book was cathartic for Delaney, and much as we all wish Henry didn't die, that any child should die before their parents without living a long happy and healthy life, I am mightily glad Delaney had the strength and courage to write this book and share his story.
Deborah Maclaren
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A Heart That Works Synopsis
In this memoir of loss, acclaimed writer and comedian Rob Delaney grapples with the fragile miracle of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind.
When you're a parent and your child gets hurt or sick, you not only try to help them get better but you also labour under the general belief that you can help them get better. That's not always the case though. Sometimes the nurses and the doctors can't fix what's wrong. Sometimes children die.
Rob Delaney's beautiful, bright, gloriously alive son Henry died. He was one when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. An experience beyond comprehension, but an experience Rob must share. Why does he feel compelled to talk about it, to write about it, to make people feel something like what he feels when he knows it will hurt them? Because, despite Henry's death, Rob still loves people. For that reason, he wants them to understand.
A Heart That Works is an intimate, unflinching and fiercely funny exploration of loss - from the harrowing illness to the vivid, bodily impact of grief and the blind, furious rage that follows, through to the forceful, unstoppable love that remains.
This is the story of what happens when you lose a child, and everything you discover about life in the process.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781399710848 |
| Publication date: |
20th October 2022 |
| Author: |
Rob Delaney |
| Publisher: |
Coronet Books an imprint of Hodder & Stoughton |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
184 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Rob Delaney Press Reviews
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
What a read. Its beauty and pain and humour and anger will help many people. This is a beautiful monument -- Richard Osman
The weaving of the joy and pain, the love and loss, the absurdity of grief, is done so beautifully. It feels like a message in a bottle, a despatch, a communication from the depths of suffering and despair that ultimately brings a message of great hope -- Cathy Rentzenbrink
It is a gift, it's an immense piece of work. It's brilliant. It's needed, like a deep, physical draught of something strong and cold -- Russell T. Davies
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
Warm and vivid and heartbreaking, humane and somehow even funny, Rob Delaney has written a very special tribute to a very special boy, and a beautiful treatise on what really matters in life -- Monica Heisey
I got to know Henry through Rob's words. His sweet soft head. His amazing smile . . . I cried a lot but also felt hopeful because life goes on and Rob talks you through how that happens. I am in awe. It's a love letter to fatherhood and the most beautiful tribute to a child who is so deeply adored. This book will sit with me for a very long time -- Dawn O'Porter
Delaney is a phenomenal storyteller . . . A Heart That Works is in the same league as The Year of Magical Thinking in its stark, clarified articulation of grief - Buzzfeed
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
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
Emotionally raw, yet masterfully told. At the heart of this intimate story of coming to terms with the death is a stubborn embrace of life itself -- Mat Johnson, author of PYM
