Who By Fire
War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The incredible never-before-told story of Leonard Cohen's 1973 tour of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
"Who by Fire is a stunning resurrection of a moment in the life of Leonard Cohen and the history of Israel. It’s the story of a young artist in crisis and a young country at war, and the powerful resonance of the chord struck between them. A beautiful, haunting book full of feeling." —Nicole Krauss, author of To Be a Man
In October, 1973, the poet and singer Leonard Cohen – 39 years old, famous, unhappy, and at a creative dead end – traveled to the Sinai desert and inserted himself into the chaos and bloodshed of the Yom Kippur War. Moving around the front with a guitar and a pick-up team of local musicians, Cohen dived headlong into the midst of a global crisis and met hundreds of fighting men and women at the worst moment of their lives. His audiences heard him knowing it might be the last thing they heard, and those who survived never forgot what they heard.
Cohen’s war tour was an electric cultural moment, one that still echoes today, and one that inspired some of his greatest songs – but a moment that only few knew about, until now. In Who By Fire, Canadian-Israeli journalist Matti Friedman gives us a riveting account of what happened during those weeks in Israel in October, 1973. With access to amazing and never-before-seen material written by Cohen himself, along with dozens of interviews and rare photographs, Friedman revives this fraught and stunning time, presenting an intimate and unforgettable portrait of the artist, and of the young people who heard him sing in the midst of combat.
Who By Fire brings us close to one the greatest, most brilliant and charismatic voices of our times, and gives us a rare glimpse of war, faith, and belonging.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Friedman (Spies of No Country) illuminates in this fascinating tale an extraordinary chapter in the career of singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) that left a lasting impact on the state of Israel. "Sometimes an artist and an event interact to generate a spark far bigger than both," Friedman writes. As he shows here, that alchemy happened in the midst of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Cohen left his home to give spontaneous concerts to Israeli troops at the front lines in the Sinai desert. Drawing on excerpts from an unpublished manuscript Cohen wrote about his experiences as well as interviews with those who were there, Friedman brilliantly constructs a vivid account humanizing the young soldiers (When Cohen plays "Suzanne," Friedman writes, "The men are quiet. They hear about a place that doesn't have blackened tanks and figures lying still in charred coveralls") and the singer, who, after contemplating retirement at age 39, was revitalized by the trip and went on to write his best-known works, including "Hallelujah." Friedman also underscores how Cohen's visit transformed the nation's music and "spiritual life," leading the country to abandon "the militant secularism of the founders for an openness to the old wisdom." This demonstration of the power of song will stun fans of the legendary artist.
