A Heart That Works: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
£9.00£10.40 (-13%)
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.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Coronet (31 Aug. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 192 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1399710885 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1399710886 |
| Dimensions | 12.6 x 1.8 x 19.6 cm |
by Joseph Mc Kevitt
I inhaled this book in an afternoon. I could almost hear Rob Delaney narrating it to me. Sad and poignant yet an honest and beautiful read. I can only imagine how painful it must have been to write but a lovely tribute to the life of little Henry and his brave strong family. One of those books I didn’t want to end. Thanks for writing…
by Chocolate Addict
I suffered from a life threatening brain injury in 2013 . Since then, I have struggled to read for pleasure , as my dippy brain doesn’t usually connect with the plots of books as it once used to . But I found ‘A Heart That Works’ so moving that I literally could not put it down – reading it in a single day . Rob Delaney combines tragic facts with touching emotion, and lovely humorous moments , too . His words capture the beautiful love of his family perfectly, in what is an incredibly moving tribute to his son, Henry .
by Siobhan New Number
As a bereaved mother this book reasonated with me .. the anger and every thing that goes with grief .. a beautiful , heartbreaking book
by WelshVikingDiscoGoth
You’ll probably cry more than you have at any other book. Witty, smart, informative, devastating.
by Amazon Customer
I have just finished reading Rob’s book. Reading an account of a person’s darkest, most traumatic times, you detect the ins, outs and workings of a person’s mind, and I’m a huge fan of Rob’s mind. Rob is an incredible, natural writer – poetic, uses beautiful metaphors, with a brutal honesty that makes you soak up everything he is telling you – he’s a very reliable narrator. When he says ‘f*** those people who think this way,’ I nod enthusiastically. This, of course, wasn’t an easy read, and you need to take a break to process what you’ve just read. I don’t think talking about death, especially child death should be a taboo topic, and this book is helping those families who face a similar battle and have to endure others’ insensitivity and ignorance when they tiptoe around a subject that makes them uncomfortable. People are scared of others in pain like it’s contagious. If someone has to endure the agony and pain of losing a child in this drawn-out hell, the least I can do, and others can do, is share in their pain, read, sob, and listen alongside them. It’s the very least and we owe it to them.
This book will stay with me for the rest of my life. I heard Rob on Radio 4 speaking of Henry’s loss, and naturally, I cried. But, in my ignorance, I didn’t fully comprehend the entirety of the loss; Henry’s disabilities, daily, monthly struggles, deterioration; his courage and desire to live…The trauma Rob and Leah had to process, with each setback piled on top of them. There are moments in this book that are truly torturous, and with Rob’s writing, you feel it viscerally – you recoil and flinch, feel sick and despair at the world for slowing this to happen. However, there are moments of joy – the dog visit in the hospital, sitting under the stars with Henry, afternoon naps with blissful music – the countless members of staff who are angels in the comfort they bring. The family comes together, splitting the care of Henry between them, bathing Henry in love (literally and metaphorically). The writing is philosophical – it tries to find a purpose in hopelessness and does. The book gives hope and gives a voice to parents of sick children. Those experiencing grief but can’t articulate it can find solace in the words of this book. It is physically providing funds to incredible charities. It changed my perspective permanently for the better, almost in a spiritual way. It shows you what’s important, what truly matters. Child Grief is relentless; it is pain and it is hopeless longing for what was and the potential of a beautiful, meaningful life that was never given the opportunity to grow and thrive…
Early on in the book, Rob says to the reader that we’ll remember Henry but then forget and get on with our lives. Whilst I cannot promise I’ll be thinking of Henry every second of every day like I know Rob and Leah spend their waking hours doing. But, I can promise that I’ll never forget Henry and his short yet long life. Long in the sense of the impact his little life has made on me and thousands of others who have read and lived his story.
by mr n s david
Such an impossibly hard story, told with love an humor. It’s hard to laugh when your crying, but not impossible
by Alison Barkess
Good read.
by Amazon Customer
Just read it. It’s heartbreaking but wonderful in equal measure.