Product Description Spanning four decades from the 1940s to the present and set against the backdrops of Paris, Jerusalem, Cambridge, and Toronto, this novel focuses on a sensuous female astronomer's attempt to free herself from the past From Library Journal Jumping back and forth over four decades with settings in Paris, Toronto, England, and Jerusalem, this novel blends storytelling with a dash of science and philosophy. It centers around its narrator, Nadine Santangel, orphaned when her parents are sent to concentration camps shortly after her birth in Paris in 1941. She becomes an astronomy student and teacher in Canada, but she is haunted by what happened during her early years. Wielding a not always benign influence are a half-uncle, Stefan, and a fellow student, D.B. Miller. Nadine relates events as encountered and as told to her, adding her interpretations. Although the story is not always compelling, some characterizations are oddly fascinating, and the reader can identify with Nadine's efforts to fit all the influences and incidents of her life into an understandable whole. Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib . , Des MoinesCopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Last Seen, Matt Cohen's penultimate novel, was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award and the Trillium Book Award. Last Seen is a darkly comic story of two brothers and a woman who brings them both back to life. Harold, the older brother, is handsome and charming but dying of cancer. Alex is bookish and a scholar in Europe. With Francine, a nurse they both once loved, Alec cares for Harold until he dies. One day, Alec goes into a bar full of Elvis impersonators and there meets Francine--and Harold. Why has Harold come back from the dead? In this fragmentary tale of obsessive grieving, Cohen mixes moments of wry humour with touching pathos. Last Seen demonstrates that it takes more than death to untie the knot between two brothers. From the eBook edition.

Matt Cohen's stories have been widely anthologized and have appeared in distinguished periodicals and journals in Canada, Britain and the United States. "Lives of the Mind Slaves" features 7 short stories -- one of which (Trotsky's First Confessions') was written especially for this book -- and a brilliant novella. Cohen's novella, Golden Whore of the Heartland, explores the conflict between the spontaneity of passion -- a chance affair -- and the comfort of commitment and belonging. The Sins of Tomas Benares' explores the theme of love over generations. 'Caf? Le Dog' is a celebration of all that remains inexplicable in the attractions between men and women. Racial Memories' is vintage Cohen -- a story about a not-so-classic Jewish family. "Lives of the Mind Slaves" contains the best of Cohen's two previous short story collections, "Caf? Le Dog" and "Living on Water."