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How to Live. What To Do.: In search of ourselves in life and literature
by Josh Cohen'We tell ourselves stories in order to live' Joan DidionFrom the truths and lies we tell about ourselves to the resonant creations of fiction, stories give shape and meaning to all our lives. Both a practicing psychoanalyst and a professor of literature, Josh Cohen has long been taken with the mutual echoes between the life struggles of the consulting room and the dramas of the novel. So what might the most memorable characters in literature tell us about how to live meaningfully?In How to Live. What to Do, Cohen plots a course through the various stages of our lives, discovering in each the surprising and profound insights literature has to offer. Beginning with the playful mindset of Wonderland's Alice, we discover the resilience of Jane Eyre, the rebellious rage of Baldwin's Johnny Grimes and the catastrophic ambitions of Jay Gatsby, the turbulence of first love for Sally Rooney's Frances, the sorrows of marriage for Middlemarch's Dorothea Brooke, and the regrets and comforts of middle age for Rabbit Angstrom.
A Eulogy for Nigger and Other Essays: The Second Notting Hill Editions Essay Prize Winners
by Josh Cohen David Bradley Jennifer Kabat Johanna Mohring Garry Cooper Kate McLoughlinThis collection brings together the six international winners of the Notting Hill Editions £20,000 Essay Prize. From the coolly analytical to the impassioned winning entry 'A Eulogy for Nigger', these essays showcase the dazzling literary range of the form.
Attention: Dispatches from a Land of Distraction
by Joshua CohenWith Attention, Joshua Cohen returns with his first collection of nonfiction, the culmination of two decades of writing and thought about life in the digital age. In essays, memoir, criticism, diary entries, and letters—many appearing here for the first time—Cohen covers the full depth and breadth of modern life: politics, literature, art, music, travel, the media, and psychology, and subjects as diverse as Google, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, fictional animals, Gustav Mahler, Aretha Franklin, John Zorn, landscape photography, fake Caravaggios, Wikipedia, Gertrude Stein, Edward Snowden, Jonathan Franzen, Olympic women’s fencing, Atlantic City casinos, the closing of the Ringling Bros. circus, and Azerbaijan. Cohen directs his sharp gaze at home and abroad, calling upon his extraordinary erudition and unrivaled ability to draw connections between seemingly unlike things to show us how to live without fear in a world overflowing with information. At this crucial juncture in history, Attention is a guide for the perplexed—a handbook for anyone hoping to bring the wisdom of the past into the culture of the future.
Book of Numbers: A Novel
by Joshua Cohen‘Dazzling and engrossing’ Colm Tóibín, GuardianA Granta Best Young American AuthorBook of Numbers is a novel about two men of the same age and with the same name: Joshua Cohen. The first Joshua is a writer whose keenly anticipated debut had the bad luck to be published on September 11, 2001. The other Joshua is the enigmatic billionaire Founder and CEO of the world’s most profitable tech company.Autobiography, family memoir, phoned-in ghostwriting, international thriller, sex comedy – Book of Numbers brings to life the full range of modern experience in the course of its epic journey.
Moving Kings: A Novel
by Joshua CohenOne of the boldest voices of his generation, Joshua Cohen returns with Moving Kings, a propulsive, incendiary novel that interweaves, in profoundly intimate terms, the housing crisis in America's poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods with the world's oldest conflict, in the Middle East.The year is 2015, and twenty-one-year-olds Yoav and Uri, veterans of the last Gaza War, have just completed their compulsory military service in the Israel Defense Forces. In keeping with national tradition, they take a year off for rest, recovery, and travel. They come to New York City and begin working for Yoav's distant cousin David King - a proud American patriot, Republican, and Jew, and the recently divorced proprietor of King's Moving Inc., a heavyweight in the Tri-State area's moving and storage industries. Yoav and Uri now must struggle to become reacquainted with civilian life, but it's not easy to move beyond their traumatic pasts when their days are spent kicking down doors as evictionmovers in the ungentrified corners of the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, throwing out delinquent tenants and seizing their possessions. And what starts off as a profitable if eerily familiar job - an "Occupation" - quickly turns violent when they encounter one homeowner seeking revenge.Driven by Cohen's characteristic intelligence, boundless energy, psychological tension, and humor, Moving Kings is a powerful and provocative novel about faith, race, class, and what it means to have a home.
The Netanyahus
by Joshua CohenCorbin College, not-quite-upstate New York, winter 1959-1960: Ruben Blum, a Jewish historian – but not an historian of the Jews - is coopted onto a hiring committee to review the application of an exiled Israeli scholar specializing in the Spanish Inquisition. When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host, to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction with non-fiction, the campus novel with the lecture, The Netanyahus is a wildly inventive, genre-bending comedy of blending, identity, and politics – ‘An Account of A Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family’ that finds Joshua Cohen at the height of his powers.
Excavating Exodus: Biblical Typology and Racial Solidarity in African American Literature (Clemson University Press: African American Literature)
by Joshua Laurence CohenExcavating Exodus analyzes adaptations of Exodus in novels, newspapers, and speeches from the antebellum period to the Civil Rights era. Although Exodus has perennially served to mobilize resistance to oppression, Black writers have radically reinterpreted its meaning over the past two centuries. Changing interpretations of Moses’ story reflect evolving conceptions of racial identity, religious authority, gender norms, political activism, and literary form. Black writers transformed Moses from a paragon of race loyalty into an avatar of authoritarianism. Excavating Exodus identifies a rhetorical tradition initiated by David Walker and carried on by Martin Delany and Frances Harper that treats Moses’ loyalty to his fellow Hebrews as his defining characteristic. By the twentieth century, however, a more skeptical group of writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and William Melvin Kelley, associated Moses with overbearing charismatic authority. This book traces the transition from Walker, who treated Moses as the epitome of self-sacrifice, to Kelley, who considered Moses a flawed model of leadership and a threat to individual self-reliance. By asking how Moses became a touchstone for notions of racial belonging, Excavating Exodus illuminates how Black intellectuals reinvented the Mosaic model of charismatic male leadership.
All Work And No Play... (In Bed with the Boss #3)
by Julie CohenShe’s got mail! But who’s it from? Jane Miller is great at her job. That’s the best she can say about her life, seeing as her fiancé left her five days ago. Jonny Cole is a blast from Jane’s past. Since he came back to England from California, they’ve been emailing. But they’ve not met face to face…
Dear Thing
by Julie CohenAfter years of watching her best friends Ben and Claire try for a baby, Romily offered to give them the one thing they most wanted. But Romily wasn't prepared for the overwhelming feelings that have taken hold of her and which threaten to ruin her friendship with Ben and Claire – and even destroy their marriage.Now there are three friends, two mothers and only one baby, and an impossible decision to make . . .
Falling
by Julie CohenCan you imagine keeping a secret so devastating, you couldn’t even tell the people you love?Honor’s secret threatens to rob her of the independence she’s guarded ferociously for eighty years.Jo’s secret could smash apart the ‘normal’ family life she’s fought so hard to build.Lydia’s could bring her love - or the loss of everything that matters to her.Grandmother, mother and daughter – three women whose lives are falling apart. But one summer’s day, a single dramatic moment will force their secrets into the open.Can they save each other from falling?Readers of Jojo Moyes, Liane Moriarty and Lisa Jewell will love this surprising, moving story.
Getting Away With It
by Julie CohenFrom the bestselling author of Richard and Judy Book Club pick Dear Thing, and Where Love Lies, a heartbreaking and uplifting read for anyone who's ever run away - and found their way back home...Liza Haven couldn't wait to escape the small village where she grew up with her perfect identical twin sister, Lee. Her life in LA as a stunt woman is reckless, fast and free - and that's just the way she likes it. But when a near-fatal mistake drives her home, she finds Lee gone and everyone in the village mistaking her for her twin sister. Liza has to deal with her ailing mother, the family ice cream business, and Lee's dangerously attractive boyfriend. Liza's always been the bad twin, but as she struggles to keep up the masquerade and puzzle out where her sister has gone, she realises it's not so simple. She's spent her whole life getting away with it - is it finally time to face up to who she really is and where she really belongs?
Girl From Mars
by Julie CohenA truly out-of-this-world romance from Little Black Dress star Julie Cohen I, Philomena Desdemona Brown, do solemnly swear to forsake all romantic relationships... It's not like the vow, made by Fil and her three nerdy male best friends, seemed much of a big deal at the time. Frankly, Fil wouldn't know romance if it hit her in the face, and with her real love being her artist job at Girl from Mars, the comic whose heroine has never had a love interest, she doesn't exactly mind being relationship-free anyway. Until her world is rocked to its core when one of her long-standing quartet and Girl from Mars herself both unexpectedly fall in love. Is it time to give in to temptation and finally fall in love?
Honey Trap
by Julie CohenSophie Tennant is used to sticky situations… because Sophie used to be a private investigator, setting honey traps for husbands and giving wives grounds for divorce. But these days she's an aromatherapist – an aromatherapist who's going on tour with a rock band, baby! Which is all good, until she recognises the band's bassist, Dominick Steele: her first honey trap, and the man who taught her she has a dangerous attraction to bad boys. But her attraction's not half as lethal as the vengeful spouse who suddenly seems to be following her!
Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom
by Julie CohenAll work and no play makes Nina a dull girl... But when you're PA to a celebrity chef who's even tastier than one of his delicious dishes you can't help loving your job. And what's wrong with fancying the pants off your boss? Erm, everything if he's married to someone else. So when Nina meets sexy Spaniard Juan, she's thrilled to escape to a new life abroad... until Juan does a runner with her hard-earned cash. Nina has no choice but to head home and brave 'The Temple of Gloom' - a gothic flat with some unusual inhabitants. Nina's had enough of bloodsuckers. But is her mysterious neighbour Viktor really a vampire?
One Night Stand
by Julie CohenEleanor Connor has written lots of steamy novels, but sadly her own life is more mundane. In fact, the nearest she's come to passion for ages is having to listen through the thin walls of her house as friend and neighbour Hugh seduces an endless stream of women. But then Eleanor has a one-night fling of her own, waking up alone, repentant, and as she later realises, pregnant. Desperate to find her missing lover, if only to tell him he's going to be a father, she enlists Hugh to help her search. But should she be looking closer to home to find out what it is she really needs?
Spirit Willing, Flesh Weak
by Julie CohenRosie Fox is a liar. A really, really good liar. But when you're a stage psychic who's not actually psychic, you have to be. Then one night, while pretending to commune with the dead relatives and pets of her audience, Rosie makes a startling prediction - which tragically comes true. Suddenly she's trapped in a media frenzy, spearheaded by the impossibly handsome journalist Harry Blake, a man intent on kick-starting his stalled career by exposing Rosie as a fraud. Yet when his interest in her goes from professional to personal, she thinks she can trust him not to blow her cover - but maybe she's making a huge mistake.
Spirited
by Julie CohenA moving and gripping story about three women who keep unspeakable truths, from the Richard & Judy recommended bestselling author Julie Cohen.'Haunting, tender and true - this story cast a spell on me' Kirsty Logan---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Viola has an impossible talent. Searching for meaning in her grief, she uses her photography to feel closer to her late father, taking solace from the skills he taught her - and to keep her distance from her husband. But her pictures seem to capture things invisible to the eye . . .Henriette is a celebrated spirit medium, carrying nothing but her secrets with her as she travels the country. When she meets Viola, a powerful connection is sparked between them - but Victorian society is no place for reckless women.Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, invisible threads join Viola and Henriette to another woman who lives in secrecy, hiding her dangerous act of rebellion in plain sight.Faith. Courage. Love. What will they risk for freedom? Driven by passionate, courageous female characters, SPIRITED is your next unforgettable read!Perfect for fans of other bestselling historical novels The Binding by Bridget Collins, The Familiars by Stacey Halls, and Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Praise for the Richard & Judy Bookclub Pick TOGETHER by Julie Cohen:'A bold, breathtaking and truly compelling love story' Lisa Jewell'Moving and beautiful' Joanna Cannon'One of the most beautiful and heart-breaking stories I've read' Emma Flint'Reminded me of One Day & The Time Traveler's Wife' Erin Kelly'The kind of novel that will stay with you forever' Rowan Coleman'A page-turner with real emotional punch' Catherine Isaac'Original, poignant and beautifully told' S Magazine'A must read' Good Housekeeping'A taut, beguiling love-story-in-reverse that reveals just how far people will go to protect themselves from facing the truth' Elle'Every now and again, a novel comes along that is so different, so affecting and so unforgettable, that you simply must tell everyone you know to read it' Heat---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Praise for the Polari Prize 2019 longlisted novel THE TWO LIVES OF LOUIS & LOUISE by Julie Cohen:'Brilliant . . . I enjoyed it hugely' Marian Keyes'Hugely original and heartbreakingly real' Rosie Walsh'Not often does a story remind us of what beautifully complex creatures we are. Julie Cohen has given us that rare gift' Christina Dalcher'Elegant, thoughtful and powerful' Daisy Buchanan'So cleverly done and authentic' A J Pearce'Beautifully written and thought-provoking' Kate Eberlen'A timely read that will stay with you long after you put it down' Libby Page'A cobweb of a book: beautifully intricate and delicate' Veronica Henry'Engaging, moving, arresting' Sunday Times'A powerful and memorable story' Sunday Express'A modern tale told with heart' Grazia
The Summer of Living Dangerously
by Julie CohenFrom the bestselling author of Richard and Judy Book Club pick Dear Thing, and Where Love Lies, a heartbreaking and life-affirming story about facing up to your past and finding out what - and who - you really want...Alice Woodstock has her life under control. She's successful and she's happy - as long as she continues to ignore the hurt from her past. But when said past walks back into her life in the shape of Leo - the man she married too young, ran away to Paris with and who ultimately broke her heart - Alice is desperate for an escape route. She finds the perfect thing - a new job as a tour guide in a Regency stately home. But as she immerses herself in acting out the stories of the house, Alice begins to see parallels with her own life, forcing her to confront her feelings about what she wants and, finally, live in the real world.
Summer People: The captivating and romantic beach read you don’t want to miss in 2022!
by Julie Cohen'Tender, complex, complicated and passionate, Summer People pulls you along like a rip tide: a heady mix of duty and desire; loyalty and lust that doesn't let up until the final page. Stunning.' VERONICA HENRYA love that can't be stopped.A secret that will change everything...Marriages end with a whisper, not a bang. Not an argument, which is after all about passion, waves crashing on a shore, but with the small pockets of coldness that an argument creates. It's like islands. They don't sink like Atlantis. They wear away, little by little, until all you've got left is a single rock and a light. A warning to safer travellers to stay away.The last time Vee left the shores of Unity Island, she thought she'd left forever. But this summer, she's returning with her charming husband, Mike.Vee's unexpected arrival, this time as one of the wealthy 'summer people', sets the small island community alight with gossip. What's more, her childhood best friend, Sterling, is furious that she's come back - Vee abandoned him when he needed her most.And then Vee meets Rachel, Sterling's wife, and a spark is ignited within her that she can't extinguish. And as summer turns to autumn, long-buried secrets emerge that will cause a storm greater than any of them could ever have imagined.But when autumn comes, who will sail away with the tide and who will choose to stay behind on the island...?
Together: a Richard and Judy Book Club summer read 2018
by Julie CohenRICHARD AND JUDY SUMMER BOOK CLUB PICK 2018'This big, clever, tender and twisty love story reminded me of One Day & The Time Traveler's Wife' Erin Kelly, author of He Said, She Said****Robbie and Emily have been together for years, but their love is still fresh and fierce. They have shared a bed, a home, a bond so deep it can't be broken. But there are things they don't share, things best left unsaid.On a morning like any other, Robbie wakes, dresses, writes Emily a letter - and leaves their home for good. There is a secret they've been keeping since the day they met. The sacrifices and choices that have sealed their fates could be exposed, and this is the only way to keep it all hidden...Is this a great love story or a story about great love?Whatever you decide, theirs is a story that will never leave you.****Readers can't stop talking about TOGETHER:'A bold, breathtaking and truly compelling love story, one that will stay with me for a long time' Lisa Jewell, author of Then She Was Gone'Julie Cohen's writing is powerful, moving and truly beautiful' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 'It takes a lot to tempt me from crime, but this is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking stories I've read' Emma Flint, author of Little Deaths 'Complex, compelling and beautiful, Together is the kind of novel that will stay with you forever' Rowan Coleman, author of The Summer of Impossible Things'Cleverly-plotted and stunningly written, Julie Cohen's Together is a page-turner with real emotional punch' Catherine Isaac, author of You, Me, EverythingPerfect for fans of Ruth Hogan, Gail Honeyman and Sarah Winman and anyone looking for a thought-provoking page-turner.
The Two Lives of Louis & Louise: The emotional new novel from the Richard and Judy bestselling author of 'Together'
by Julie Cohen'It's BRILLIANT. Such a clever, entertaining way to demonstrate how gender predetermines a life. I enjoyed it hugely' Marian Keyes* Fabulous pick for 2019's Best Books ** Woman & Home Pick of the Month * * Good Housekeeping Book of the Month * * Emerald Street January's Best Books * * Stylist 2019's Hottest Books * * THE POOL Recommended Books 2019 * *****ONE LIFE. LIVED TWICE. Louis and Louise are the same person born in two different lives. They are separated only by the sex announced by the doctor and a final 'e'.They have the same best friends, the same red hair, the same dream of being a writer, the same excellent whistle. They both suffer one catastrophic night, with life-changing consequences. Thirteen years later, they are both coming home.A tender, insightful and timely novel about the things that bring us together - and those which separate us, from the author of Richard & Judy recommended book Together *****A NOVEL PEOPLE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT...'Julie Cohen has created something really special . . . full of raw emotion . . . and a heartfelt message which declares that regardless of gender, what really matters to humans most is love' Stylist'Not often does a story remind us of what beautifully complex creatures we are. Julie Cohen has given us that rare gift' Christina Dalcher, author of VOX'Louis and Louise is Julie Cohen at her absolute best. So cleverly done and authentic, and you feel as if you live in the town with the characters and have been in the story with them.' A J Pearce'Louis & Louise is moving and beautiful, but it will also make you wonder and question, and it will stretch out your thinking so very beautifully' Joanna Cannon'Elegant, thoughtful and powerful' Daisy Buchanan'Hugely original and heartbreakingly real' Rosie Walsh 'Beautifully written and thought-provoking' Kate Eberlen, author of MISS YOU'An engaging, moving novel, at its most arresting in the pivotal scenes when she explores the personal fallout of industrial and class conflict in Louis/Louise's beleaguered hometown' Sunday Times 'A powerful and memorable story of small town secrets, family dynamics and the sense that some things are just meant to be' Sunday Express'Emotional and seriously powerful' Fabulous'The premise here is radical, but worth the effort... this elegantly written novel also examines much that is universal Daily Mail*****A perfect bookclub read for anyone who has enjoyed Celeste Ng, Kate Atkinson and Anne Tyler.
Where Love Lies
by Julie Cohen‘A brilliantly original story that will resonate loud and clear with anyone who’s ever been knocked sideways by love’ HEATWhen Felicity steps off the train on the way to meet her husband, she is so sure of everything. Where she is heading, what she will eat at the restaurant, the first words her husband will saywhen she arrives, their life together. Then she catches a scent of perfume in the air. Forgotten emotions rush to the surface, memoriesof another man she loved years ago.As it happens again and again, Felicity beginsto make decisions that no one can understand. What is happening to her? Is she losing a partof herself, or finding one?How can she truly know where love lies?‘Every once in a while a book stops you in your tracks . . . A stunning study of love and life’s regrets that will leave you breathless’ MIRANDA DICKINSON
A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories (Canons)
by Leonard CohenAn unprecedented glimpse into the formation of the legendary talent of Leonard Cohen. Before the celebrated late-career world tours, before the Grammy awards, before the chart-topping albums, before 'Hallelujah' and 'So Long, Marianne' and 'Famous Blue Raincoat', the young Leonard Cohen wrote poetry and fiction and yearned for literary stardom. In A Ballet of Lepers, readers will discover that the magic that animated Cohen’s unforgettable body of work was present from the very beginning. Written between 1956 in Montreal, just as Cohen was publishing his first poetry collection, and 1961, when he’d settled on Greece’s Hydra island, the pieces in this collection offer startling insight into Cohen’s imagination and creative process, and explore themes that would permeate his later work, from shame and unworthiness to sexual desire to longing, whether for love, family, freedom or transcendence. The titular novel, A Ballet of Lepers – one he later remarked was 'probably a better novel' than his celebrated book The Favourite Game – is a haunting examination of these elements, while the fifteen stories, as well as the playscript, probe the inner demons of his characters, many of whom could function as stand-ins for the author himself. Meditative, surprising, playful and provocative, A Ballet of Lepers is vivid in its detail, unsparing in its gaze, and reveals the great artist and visceral genius like never before.
Beautiful Losers
by Leonard CohenOne of the best-known experimental novels of the 1960s, this uninhibited tale centres on the hapless members of a love triangle, and their sexual obsession and shared fascination with a mythic saint.
Book of Longing (Popular Penguins Series)
by Leonard CohenBook of Longing is Leonard Cohen's first book of new poetry since Book of Mercy was published two decades ago. It collects Cohen's poetry written between the 1980s and the present, and also includes his wonderfully witty and sensuous illustrations, including numerous playful self-portraits. The illustrations interact with, and complement, the poetry in unexpected and fascinating ways. Book of Longing demonstrates the range and depth of Cohen's work, revealing an extraordinary gift of language and visual art that speak with rare clarity, passion and timelessness.