A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (Used – Good)

A book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. An exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive. A deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

The book was a commercial and critical success, reaching number one on The New York Times bestseller list and being nominated as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Time magazine and several newspapers dubbed it “The Best Book of the Year”. Critics praised the book for its wild, vibrant prose, and it was described as “big, daring [and] manic-depressive” by The New York Times. The book was chosen as the 12th best book of the decade by The Times.

The book’s primary story is Eggers’s learning to be both brother and parent to Toph. It starts with Eggers, Toph, and Beth dealing with their mother and father’s stomach and lung cancer illnesses, respectively. After their parents’ deaths, Eggers, Toph, and Beth’s lives become complicated. The three children move from Illinois to California.