The Flame, Leonard Cohen
The Flame, Leonard Cohen
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The Flame
Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings

Author: Leonard Cohen

Narrator: Ari Fliakos, Jim Fletcher, John Doe, Maggie Hoffman, Margaret Atwood, Michael Shannon, Neela Vaswani, Rodney Crowell, Seth Rogen, Will Patton

Unabridged: 4 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/02/2018

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

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.

About Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal in 1934. Soon after graduating from McGill University, he published his first collection of poems, Let Us Compare Mythologies, in 1956. He would go on to publish a dozen more volumes of poetry, including Book of Longing, and two novels, The Favourite Game and Beautiful Losers. A hugely influential and critically acclaimed singer and songwriter, Cohen released fourteen studio albums between 1967 and 2016, the last being You Want It Darker, for the title track of which he posthumously won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Grammys. He won both the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature and the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011, and the first PEN New England Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award in 2012. Cohen died in Los Angeles on November 7, 2016.

About Ari Fliakos

Ari Fliakos is an actor with experience in television, radio, film, theater, and voiceovers. His narration of Seth Patrick’s Reviver won an Audie for paranormal fiction. He has narrated Black Site and Tier One Wild by Dalton Fury, as well as Gangster Squad, The Inquisitor, and Shotgun Lovesongs. On screen, he is best-known for his roles in Law & Order, Pills, and Company K.

About Maggie Hoffman

Maggie Hoffman is a founder of the performance collective Radiohole, and the artist-run venue The Collapsable Hole in the West Village. In addition to 25 years of collaborative performance with Radiohole, Maggie is a company member of the theater ensemble Elevator Repair Service.

About Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is best known as the author of more than thirty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, including The Blind Assassin, which won the Booker Prize. She has written several other children’s books, including Rude Ramsay and the Roaring Radish and Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut. She lives in Toronto, Canada.

About Will Patton

Will Patton is an Earphones Award-winner and Audie finalist who has narrated works by Charles Frazier, Larry McMurtry, Don DeLillo, and Ernest Hemingway.  He was named Best Voice in Mystery & Suspense by AudioFile magazine in both 2008 and 2009. Patton’s narration of Stephen  King’s Doctor Sleep earned an Audie for fiction in 2014.  Patton has also won two OBIE awards for best actor for the off-Broadway plays, Sam Shepard's Fool for Love and the Public Theatre production of What Did He See?  He's appeared in a host of films including A Mighty Heart with Angelina Jolie, Knucklehead, Brooklyn's Finest, and Dog Days of Summer.  His many television credits include The Agency, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, 24, and Numb3rs.


Reviews

Goodreads review by karen on April 02, 2022

HAPPY POETRY MONTH! april is national poetry month, so here come thirty floats! the cynics here will call this plan a shameless grab for votes. and maybe there’s some truth to that— i do love validation, but charitably consider it a rhyme-y celebration. i don’t intend to flood your feed— i’ll just post one a......more

Goodreads review by ☘Misericordia☘ on May 19, 2024

A true talent never dies. Farewell 'My Secret Life', 'The Partisan', 'Nevermind'... So many wonderful people are no longer with us... LC was one of the mavericks. RIP! Christmas has come early this year for me. A postmortem edition of one of the most revered contemporary magicians of the word! Choosing......more

Goodreads review by Gerhard on May 07, 2021

I don’t want to greet the morning light with a night like this in my heart soul Have mercy on those shadows that fall in love with shadows The Observer wasn’t kidding when it called Leonard Cohen ‘the last word in love and despair’. This final collection from Cohen has an introduction written by his son......more

Goodreads review by Shameless.bookslut on July 01, 2022

I like the way he always talk about sad love like he is standing between regreting how he loved and glad how he never loved before. someone I always share quotes and poetries with, him after reading these said, "𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮".......more

Goodreads review by Alex on October 24, 2018

As a big Leonard Cohen fan, I loved this collection of poems, lyrics, notes, and drawings. When you love an artist and their work this much, it can be hard to be objective-you end up treasuring every little glimpse into the author's life and work, especially after they have passed. The Flame is a gen......more


Quotes

"A celebrity cast...provide an eloquent tribute." -AudioFile


Awards

  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
  • Financial Times Books of the Year
  • Oprah.com Best Books of the Year