Heart, You Bully, You Punk

Esker spends her days teaching math at a private school in Brooklyn; most nights she curls up under an afghan in her tiny apartment and reads. At thirty-one, after early loss and romantic disappointment, she dwells in self-imposed solitude, finding refuge in her solutions of geometry and algebra. But when Ann James, her favorite student, mysteriously falls from the bleachers during Winter Concert rehearsals and has to stay home while she recovers, Esker begins home-tutoring the precocious teenager.  And soon, much to her chagrin, Esker finds herself falling edgily, haltingly in love with Ann's father, Wally. Suddenly, the mathematician's heart is doing the calculating and the numbers aren't adding up.

Heart, You Bully, You Punk describes the mysterious, unpredictable, even mutinous ways people's hearts mess with their lives...packed with detail...a lively, thoughtful pleasure. The New York Times Book Review Esker is the kind of broken soul you root for, and Cohen's wistful novel evokes the intense vulnerability of love and the shattering pain of loss. Entertainment Weekly Beguilingly cheerful and alive to the nuances of pain...[the novel] has enormous emotional scope and frequent astonishing insights. Andrew Solomon In her ability to create memorable characters, to probe deep below the surface, and to render the world she creates in language that makes it all come alive on the page, Cohen stands out from the crowd. Los Angeles Times Insightful, charming, quirky, beautifully written...it's a testament to Cohen's skill that the novel - despite the stubborn and seemingly self-defeating will of the protagonists - delivers a dessert course in emotional truth that will leave the reader longing for more. Cohen is a writer to watch. The Tampa Tribune A Booksense 76 pick

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