"This is a beautifully ragged, laugh-out-loud funny and utterly unforgettable book." -San Francisco Chronicle



National Bestseller

Pulitzer Prize Finalist



A book that redefines both family and narrative for the twenty-first century. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius 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. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.



A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.