Ballet of Lepers

An 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.

Review: A fascinating collection of Leonard Cohen's early fiction foreshadows motifs and concerns that the performer later mined across decades * * Observer * *
Cohen's lyrical flair and talent with words is apparent throughout * * Independent * *
A posthumous treat from the late Leonard Cohen . . . A cut above what most rock stars could dream of writing * * Telegraph * *
A curious and compulsive examination of the boundaries of honesty and cruelty . . . Poetically astute and quite psychologically unhinged * * Guardian * *
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] fiercely brilliant posthumous collection . . . provides fascinating insight into Cohen's unique talent . . . The entire collection is an intricate exploration of the happenings of the human heart -- Anita Sethi * * iNews * *
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 * *
Praise for The Flame: The last word in love and despair . . . Full of youthful spark, beauty and romance . . . Elegantly and posthumously published . . . Leonard Cohen does not use language to pose, startle or reinvent. Words are his old comrades, and see him through to the end * * Observer, Poetry book of the month * *
Cohen was a poet before he was a musician, and with this posthumous collection his career completes its circle. Encompassing poems and lyrics written in his last decade, as well as self-portraits and notebook extracts, the book is introduced by his son Adam Cohen * * Financial Times, Best Poetry Books of 2018 * *