Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: That's How the Light Gets In, Volume 3

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The extraordinary life of one of the worlds greatest music and literary icons, in the words of those who knew him best.

Poet, novelist, singer-songwriter, artist, prophet, iconthere has never been a figure like Leonard Cohen. He was a true giant in contemporary western culture, entertaining and inspiring the world with his work. From his groundbreaking and bestselling novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers, to timeless songs such as Suzanne, Dance Me to the End of Love, and Hallelujah, Cohen is one of the worlds most cherished artists. His death in 2016 was felt around the world by the many fans and followers who would miss his warmth, humour, intellect, and piercing insights.

Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories chronicles the full breadth of his extraordinary life. This third and final volume in biographer Michael Posners sweeping series of Cohens lifeThats How the Light Gets Inexplores the last thirty years of his life, starting with the late 1980s revival of his music career with the successful albums Im Your Man and The Future. It covers the death of his manager, Marty Machat, and the appointment of another who would ultimately be accused of stealing more than five million dollars from Cohen.

Personally, Cohen suffers the traumatic end of his long relationship with French photographer Dominique Issermann and begins a public romance with actress Rebecca De Mornay. When that relationship ends in 1993, as Cohen is about to turn sixty years old, he begins a deeply spiritual phase, entering the Mount Baldy monastery under the tutelage of Zen master Joshu Sasaki Roshiarguably the most important relationship in Cohens life. Ever the seeker, he then goes to Mumbai in 1999, the first of half a dozen trips to India to investigate Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, expanding his growing fascination with spirituality.

In 2008, Cohen makes his triumphant return to the concert stage, and for five years travels the world in an extraordinary final act of his life, giving almost four hundred performances over three continents. The book provides the first full chronicle of Cohens final months, fighting debilitating disease, while still creating three new studio albums, adding to his remarkable legacy.

Cohens story is told through the voices of those who knew him bestfamily and friends, colleagues and contemporaries, business partners and lovers. Bestselling author Michael Posner draws on hundreds of interviews to reveal the unique, complex, and compelling figure of the man The New York Times called a secular saint. This is a book like no other, about a man like no other.

Reviews

Praise for Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: That's How the Light Gets In, Vol. 3
If you want to know what Leonard Cohen was really like, you can find out far more about his true character from Michael Posner's fascinating trilogyexclusively providing recollections from people who knew Leonard up close and personalthan from all the other biographies combined.
DR. ALAN TWIGG, award-winning author and publisher
The most impressive episodes in this volume show us Cohen, in the 1990s, turning 60 and confronting the chaos inside himself while carrying on with his lifes work. Its a crowdsourced redemption story with graying flecks and a dramatic soundtrack.
The Washington Free Beacon

Praise for Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: From This Broken Hill, Vol. 2
In the words of some of the people who knew Leonard Cohen bestand with important testimonies never heard beforePosner allows us a fascinating plunge into the tumult and passion of Leonard Cohens 1970s and 1980s. We see his life and endless quest for love unfold at fast pace and get an incredible glimpse into the furnace of the two decades that gave Cohen some of his best songs. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Cohen the artist, the seeker, and the man.
CHRISTOPHE LEBOLD, author of Leonard Cohen: L'homme qui voyait tomber les anges
A multi-layered, mosaic portrait of one of the most legendaryand most complexwriters and musicians that Canada has ever produced. . . . Thanks to Michael Posner and the more than 550 people he interviewed for this project, we get a much better, humanistic understanding at what drove the talented enigma that was Leonard Cohen.
The Montreal Times
Praise for Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early Years, Vol. 1
Posner undertook dozens and dozens of interviews . . . creating a unique oral history, as if theyre in a room together, sharing memories and stories. . . . Theyre linked together with a light narrative voice that gives this biography a very intimate and personal feel.
Toronto Star
Posner masterfully weaves an abundance of interviews withCohens family, friends, and myriad lovers to create an intricate tapestry and, ultimately, produces the most revealing portrait of the legendary songwriter and wordsmith to date.
NICHOLAS JENNINGS, journalist and bestselling author of Lightfoot
The life of Leonard Cohenpoet, novelist, artist, Zen monk, and oh, yes, singer-songwriteris too vast to be contained within one book. Thankfully, Posner is giving us three. . . . Posner draws on hundreds of interviews to explore Cohens private and public lives, his complexities and contradictions, and, of course, his inarguable charisma. Serve yourself some tea and oranges and settle in.
Zoomer

Author Bio

Michael Posneris an award-winning writer, playwright, and journalist, and the author of nine previous books. These include the bestselling Mordecai Richler biographyThe Last Honest Man, and the Anne Murray biographyAll of Me, as well as the first two books in theLeonard Cohen, Untold Storiesseries,The Early Years, Vol. 1andFrom This Broken Hill, Vol. 2.He was Washington Bureau Chief forMacleansmagazine, and later served as its national, foreign, and assistant managing editor. He was also managing editor of theFinancial Times of Canadafor three years. He later spent sixteen years as a senior writer withTheGlobe and Mail(Toronto).