AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR

Before 'Hallelujah', 'Suzanne' and 'Famous Blue Raincoat', the young Leonard Cohen was a gifted writer of prose. In this previously unpublished work, readers will discover the magic that animated Cohen's unique voice was present from the very beginning.

A Ballet of Lepers comprises Cohen's first novel and short stories, written between 1956 in Montreal and 1961, when he had settled on the island of Hydra in Greece. The titular story follows a reclusive man whose life is invigorated when his grandfather comes to live with him. The book explores themes that would permeate Cohen's later work, from shame and unworthiness to sexual desire and longing. Meditative, surprising and provocative, A Ballet of Lepers reveals the great artist like never before.

A curious and compulsive examination of the boundaries of honesty and cruelty . . . Poetically astute and quite psychologically unhinged * * Guardian * *
I'm a diehard Cohen fan . . . to sneak a look at his young mind, the root system of what followed, is irresistible -- SAMANTHA HARVEY * * The Observer * *
The writing captures all the gorgeous poeticism that we have come to love about his music, as well as a youthful naivete and a playfulness, a rawness that I wouldn't have predicted. There's something so fun in seeing where this all began -- OTTESSA MOSHFEGH * * CNN, Best Books of the Year * *
A prose writer of considerable distinction . . . This collection of stories, along with a novella, is rich in the dark humour and lyricism that he brought to his records * * Observer * *
Cohen's lyrical flair and talent with words is apparent throughout * * Independent * *
Brooding, bitter and cut with potent humour * * Telegraph * *
The writing deals with themes that would come to feature prominently in his magnificent canon: alienation and sexual desire, cruelty, loneliness, the search for love. Dark and unsettling * * Daily Mail * *
A fascinating collection of Leonard Cohen's early fiction foreshadows motifs and concerns that the performer later mined across decades * * Observer * *
Veering between the grim and the grandiose, the melancholy and the melodramatic, these early fictions from charismatic Leonard Cohen . . . deal in ecstasy and existential agony with worldweary narrators yearning for an indefinable something * * Daily Mail Scotland * *
Cohen has a knack for keen observation and surprising renderings of human nature * * The Nation * *

Leonard Cohen's artistic career began in 1956 with the publication of his first book of poetry, Let Us Compare Mythologies. He published two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, and ten previous books of poetry, including Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs and Book of Longing. Cohen released fourteen studio albums between 1967 and 2016, the last being You Want It Darker, the title track of which posthumously won him the Grammy for Best Rock Performance. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, and was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature and the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011. He died on November 7, 2016.