Description

The Leonard Cohen at the center of Leonard Cohen: A Novel is an everyman, a would-be artist, a would-be lover, a would-be tragic figure, yet a man haunted by the greatness of his namesake. He struggles to compete. He struggles to be more than a punchline in his own mind. He struggles, in particular, to write one song as great as the least of the great Leonard Cohen’s songs. At the center of Leonard’s life is Daphne. In their meeting on a Greek island, a contemporary fable of Daphne and Apollo plays out. But even with Daphne, Leonard is shadowed by the “other” Leonard Cohen, whom he fears is the real Apollo. The ancient myth haunts the fated lovers, and the “nobody” Leonard Cohen’s life becomes at once a mystery, a miracle, and a myth on its own terms. Once upon a time, Apollo fell hard for Daphne, who turned herself into a laurel tree. No less a fate awaits the protagonists of this slender yet universal novel, where art, love, and fame all fatefully intertwine.

Publisher Review

Praise for Jeffrey Lewis ‘Lewis is a master of the subtle interplay of coincidence and character, the light tripping of events that lead to a disaster that seems at once inevitable and yet shocking’ Ron Charles, Washington Post ‘Bittersweet and beautiful in equal measure … Lewis has earned his place in the domain of contemporary American literature’ Julian Philpot, Nudge ‘His prose is fluent and beautiful with a light, witty touch and he can evoke a character in just a few lines’ Nick Curtis, Evening Standard ‘Lewis, the award-winning novelist and screenwriter (he wrote and produced Hill Street Blues for six years) is a born storyteller with a gift for creating immensely sympathetic characters’ Carol Herman, Washington Times