MATTERS OF VITAL INTEREST

Sub-titled 'A Forty-Year Friendship with Leonard Cohen', the unmistakable and experienced face of the entertainer graces the front cover of this book wearing his trilby, holding a cane and sat beside a beautiful ginger cat. The book is a memoir of the author's ten year long friendship and spiritual journey with the late singer, songwriter, novelist and poet who passed away in late 2016. Leonard Cohen left behind many who cared for and admired him. Few knew him better than Eric Lerner, screenwriter and novelist, who first met Cohen at a zen retreat 40 years earlier. Their friendship helped guide each other through life's myriad obstacles and this is a journey told from a new perspective for the first time. Seductive, knowing, hyper-articulate, not always likeable but always fascinating, Lerner is the singer's partner in crime, spiritual questing and sheer survival and this story is told from the heart, intimate and insightful and a moving chronicle of friendship, spiritual aspiration, ageing and love. US first edition 2018, 292pp with fairly large print and 16 pages of photos including one of Cohen shopping in a supermarket and the front cover of the pair's joint enterprise, a magazine called Zero: Contemporary Buddhist Life and Thought.