A BALLET OF LEPERS A Novel and Stories

Ottessa Moshfegh, author of several audiobooks, one of which she narrates, steps in to deliver this new production of the late Leonard Cohen's early fiction, written in the 1950s. The 16 short stories and a novella are a snapshot of the period and the artist's development of his voice. Cohen focuses on themes of violence, deeply intimate sex, rejection, the betrayals of old age, and more violence. Moshfegh's voice may be unexpected, given Cohen's many first-person male characters, but, curiously, it works. Moshfegh meets the moments of sexual intimacy, and of shocking violence, straight on, conveying a reverence for these early works. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2023]