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The Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings Audiobook
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Publisher Description
This program is read by Margaret Atwood, Rodney Crowell, John Doe, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Ross Marquand, Will Patton, Seth Rogen, Michael Shannon, and Neela Vaswani. The Flame is the final collection of the seminal musician and poet, which he was determined to complete before his death. Just weeks before his death in late 2016, Leonard Cohen told The New Yorker that he was ready for the end to come. He just wanted enough time to put his last book in order. Fortunately, that time was granted. The Flame is Cohen’s eloquent farewell, a valedictory collection of lyrics and poems that maps his singular creative journey. As noted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s citation, “For six decades, Leonard Cohen revealed his soul to the world through poetry and song—his deep and timeless humanity touching our very core.” In addition to new poems about war, desire, regrets, lamb chops, and hummingbirds, and lyrics from his last three albums, including the chart-topping “You Want It Darker,” The Flame includes carefully selected excerpts from Cohen’s voluminous notebooks, which he kept faithfully over the years. Listeners will hear about the subjects that have always preoccupied Cohen: the dimensions of love, the secret code of existence, and the hope for transcendence in a broken world. In the words of Cohen’s longtime manager and friend, Robert Kory, The Flame “reveals to all the intensity of his inner fire” to the end.
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“If you felt Leonard Cohen’s death in 2016 as a personal assault, this book is a posthumous balm…All of Cohen’s work has a raw, straight-to-the-heart intensity?reach for this the next time you need inspiration for a wedding toast that will leave them gutted, or any other moment you need a little sustenance for the soul.”
— Vogue
Quotes
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“Cohen’s final volume shows his poetic soul. If you know the man only because of Hallelujah or Suzanne, pick up The Flame and warm yourself within its pages.”
— Washington Post -
“If you felt Leonard Cohen’s death in 2016 as a personal assault, this book is a posthumous balm…All of Cohen’s work has a raw, straight-to-the-heart intensity―reach for this the next time you need inspiration for a wedding toast that will leave them gutted, or any other moment you need a little sustenance for the soul.”
— Vogue -
“There are very, very few people who occupy the ground that Leonard Cohen walks on. This is our Shelley, this is our Byron.“
— Bono -
“Leonard Cohen was the poet laureate of the lack, the psalmist of the privation, who made imperfection gorgeous.”
— New York Times -
“His topics will be familiar to anyone who knows Cohen’s work: loneliness, faith, gratitude, the essential brokenness of the human spirit, and, of course, love…Poignant and brave, lit up with flashes of anger, this is a luminous collection and classic Cohen.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“A celebrity cast certainly contributes to the success of this audiobook…The many narrators are familiar with Cohen’s phrasing, and they provide an eloquent tribute.”
— AudioFile -
A celebrity cast...provide an eloquent tribute.
— AudioFile
Awards
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New York Times bestseller
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A London Daily Mail Best Book of the Year
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A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
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An O O Magazine Pick for Fall
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A Time Magazine Pick for Fall
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A 2019 Audie Award Finalist for Best Narration in Short Stories/Collections
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An Esquire pick for Fall
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A Vanity Fair Magazine Pick for Fall
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A Vogue Best Book of Autumn
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Among longlisted titles for Oprah.com Best Books of the Year, 2018
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Among longlisted titles for Financial Times Books of the Year, 2018
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Among longlisted titles for San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year, 2018
The Flame Listener Reviews
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About Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist, published two novels and eleven books of poetry and released fourteen studio albums. 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 Glenn Gould Prize in 2011.
About the Narrators
Ari Fliakos is an actor with experience in television, radio, film, theater, and voice-overs. He has earned four Earphones Awards, and his narration of Seth Patrick’s Reviver won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration for paranormal fiction. On screen, he is best-known for his roles in Law & Order, Pills, and Company K.
Maggie Hoffman is a voice talent and Earphones Award–winning audiobook narrator.
Neela Vaswani is the award-winning author of You Have Given Me a Country and Where the Long Grass Bends. Her work has received an American Book Award, an O. Henry Prize, and a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award. She teaches at Spalding University’s MFA in writing program and is the founder of the Storylines Project with the New York Public Library. She lives in New York City.
Margaret Atwood is the acclaimed author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. She is the recipient of dozens of awards, including joint winner of the Booker Prize in 2019, as well as the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, among many others.
Al Gore, former vice president of the United States, is co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management. He is also a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and a member of Apple Inc.’s board of directors. Gore spends the majority of his time as chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit devoted to solving the climate crisis. Gore was elected to the United States House of Representatives four times and the Senate twice. He served eight years as vice president. He authored the bestsellers Earth in the Balance, An Inconvenient Truth, The Assault on Reason, and Our Choice. He was a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Rodney Crowell has released nearly twenty albums in four decades, with five consecutive #1 hits and has also worked widely as a songwriter and a producer. His honors include a Grammy, an ASCAP lifetime achievement award, and membership in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He lives in Nashville.
Téa Obreht was born in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and has lived in the United States since the age of twelve. Her writing has been published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Harper’s, and the Guardian, and has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She has been named by the New Yorker as one of the twenty best American fiction writers under forty. She lives in New York.
John Doe has worked as a roofer, an aluminum siding mechanic, a manager of poetry readings, a musician, and an actor. He met Exene Cervenka at the Venice poetry workshop in 1976 and started working with Billy Zoom around the same time. When DJ Bonebrake joined X in mid-1977, the lineup was complete. As one of the last original punk rock bands standing, they continue to tour, most recently with Blondie and Pearl Jam in front of stadium-sized crowds and audiences born after the band’s formation. He has recorded eight solo records with numerous renowned singers and musicians and as an actor has appeared in over fifty films and television productions, including Road House, Great Balls of Fire, Boogie Nights, and Roswell. He currently tours as both a solo artist and with X. Doe lives north of San Francisco.