Leah Hager Cohen

"A wise and joyful novel, Strangers and Cousins is about what happens when an already sprawling family hosts an even larger and more chaotic wedding: a compassionate and entertaining story about family, culture, memory, community, and the permeable lines that define one's tribal identity"--

Strangers and Cousins

Portrays the extraordinary teachers, students, and administrators of the Lexington School for the Deaf, who belong to a unique culture and who struggle to make communication possible and accessible. Reprint.

Inside a Deaf World

Train Go Sorry

Shocked to learn that the brother with whom she shared an idyllic childhood has been imprisoned for the death of another man, Ava struggles with her sense of familial obligations while reevaluating her brother's impairments and their late parents' unconventional choices. By the award-winning author of The Grief of Others.

No Book But the World

The Grief of Others

Tutoring her star math student at home after the girl is injured, Brooklyn high school teacher Esker reluctantly falls in love with the student's father, despite a conviction that she is destined to remain a lonely spinster. Reprint.

Heart, You Bully, You Punk

A tale of two girls--one living in a parable, the other in Manhattan Ani, journeying across a great distance accompanied by a stolen kitten, meets many people along her way, but her encounters only convince her that she is meant to keep searching. Annamae, journeying from childhood to young adulthood alongside her mother, older brother, and the denizens of her Manhattan neighborhood, never outgrows her yearning for a friend she cannot describe. From their different worlds, Ani and Annamae reach across the divide, perhaps to discover--or perhaps to create--each other. Told in two mirrored narratives that culminate in a new beginning, To & Fro unleashes the wonders and mysteries of childhood in a profound exploration of identity, spirituality, and community.

To & Fro

A poignant novel about how secrets threaten the stability of a family. Late in her twentieth year, Beatrice mails a letter on the sly, sparking events that will change her life forever. The addressee is her grandmother, a legendary stage actress long estranged from her daughter, Bea's mother. Though Bea wants to become an actress herself, it is the desire to understand the old family rift that drives her to work her way into her grandmother's graces. But just as she establishes a precarious foothold in her grandmother's world, Bea's elite Boston home life begins to crumble. Her beloved father is accused of harassment by one of his graduate students; her usually composed mother shows vulnerabilities and doubt; and Bea is falling in love with a man more than twice her age.--From publisher description

House lights

A short, concise book advocates for honoring doubt and admitting when the answer is: "I don't know."

In Praise of Admitting Ignorance and Doubt (except when You Shouldn't)

I Don't Know

Set in a small town in upstate New York, this luminous novel about one remarkable summer in the lives of two young, orphaned sisters traces the unraveling of the mythology which the girls create to explain the untimely death of their parents.

Heat Lightning

A lush, gripping, psychologically complex novel that asks: How much do siblings owe one another? At the edge of a woods, on the grounds of a defunct “free school,” Ava and her brother, Fred, share a dreamy and seemingly idyllic childhood—a world defined largely by their imaginations, a celebration of curiosity and the natural environment, and each other’s presence. Their parents, progressive educators, believe passionately that children develop best without formal instruction or societal constraint. Everyone is aware of Fred’s oddness—the word “autism” is whispered—but his parents’ fierce disapproval of labels keeps him free of clinical evaluation, diagnosis, or intervention, and constantly at Ava’s side. Decades later, Fred is arrested for a shocking crime, and Ava is frantic to piece together the story of what actually happened. A boy is dead. Fred is held in a county jail. But could he really have done what he’s accused of? By now their parents are long gone, and the siblings have fallen out of touch, which causes Ava considerable guilt. Who is left to reach Fred? To explain him and his innocence to the world? Convinced that she alone can ensure he is regarded with sympathy, Ava tells their enthralling story. A writer of enormous craft, Leah Hager Cohen brings her trademark intelligence and storytelling to a psychologically gripping, richly ambiguous novel that suggests we may ultimately understand one another best not with facts alone, but through our imaginations.

A Novel

No Book but the World

Biscuit ha dieci anni e questa mattina dovrebbe già essere a scuola. Invece sta sfrecciando con la sua bicicletta lungo il fiume Hudson. Il vento le fa pizzicare gli occhi e arrossare le guance, ma Biscuit non si ferma. Come accade da settimane, sta marinando la scuola per rifugiarsi nel suo angolo preferito sulla sponda del fiume e leggere uno dei libri che ha rubato dalla biblioteca. Questo angolo all'ombra di un grande albero frondoso è l'unico luogo dove può stare da sola. Lontana dai silenzi dei suoi genitori, dal loro disinteresse, dal sottile velo di malinconia che ammanta ogni gesto quotidiano. Sua madre, Ricky, ormai non la guarda nemmeno più negli occhi e suo padre, John, si è rinchiuso nel suo lavoro di scenografo. Tutto è cominciato un anno prima, quando un grande dolore ha colpito la loro famiglia. Da quel momento la loro vita non è stata più la stessa. Ma quello che Biscuit non sa è che sua madre si è trovata di fronte a una scelta. E che le conseguenze della sua decisione la stanno lacerando, anche se la sua unica colpa è stata l’eccesso di speranza. Una speranza che adesso minaccia di distruggere l’ultimo sottile filo che lega la loro famiglia. Solo Biscuit può aiutarla a ritrovare la luce che sembra ormai sepolta nel profondo del suo sguardo. Anche a costo di incendiare le loro ultime certezze... Leah Hager Cohen è la nuova stella nascente della letteratura americana. Come un petalo bianco d’estate è stato acclamato dalla critica, premiato dall’associazione dei librai indipendenti americani, e ha scalato le classifiche del «New York Times». Una storia potente sull’amore e sul perdono, sulla forza, la speranza e il coraggio. Il coraggio di una madre capace di illuminare i momenti più bui, restituendo l’amore anche quando sembrava perduto.

Leah Hager Cohen

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