A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
12 March 2026Synopsis
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
A number one New York Times Bestseller
A stunning memoir chronicling profound grief and comic absurdity.
‘Heartbreaking? Certainly. Staggering? Yes, I’d say so. And if genius is capturing the universal in a fresh and memorable way, call it that too’ – The Sunday Times
Dave Eggers' parents died from cancer within a month of each other when he was twenty-one and his brother, Christopher, was seven. They left the Chicago suburb where they had grown up and moved to San Francisco. Hilarious and deeply heartfelt, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the story of their life together.
‘Virtuosic’ – The New York Times
‘Prodigious’ – The Irish Times
‘Shocking’ – The London Review of Books
‘Moving’ – The Washington Post
Details
12 March 2026
9781035060276Reviews
Heartbreaking? Certainly. Staggering? Yes, I'd say so. And if genius is capturing the universal in a fresh and memorable way, call it that too
Is this how all orphans would speak – "I am at once pitiful and monstrous, I know" – if they had Dave Eggers's prodigious linguistic gifts? For he does write wonderfully, and this is an extremely impressive debut
What is really shocking and exciting is the book's sheer rage. A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius is truly ferocious, like any work of genius. Eggers - self-reliant, transcendent, expansive - is Emerson's ideal Young American. [The book] does itself justice: it is a settling of accounts. And it is almost too good to be believed
A virtuosic piece of writing, a big, daring, manic-depressive stew of a book that noisily announces the debut of a talented – yes, staggeringly talented – new writer
