A Ballet of Lepers

A curious and compulsive examination of the boundaries of honesty and cruelty . . . Poetically astute and quite psychologically unhinged * * Guardian * *
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 * *
Cohen's life and art have been dissected for years, but as this revealing volume proves, there are still new shades of him to discover * * Esquire * *