Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw Angels Fall

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Biography, 2025 “Leonard Cohen is a literary masterpiece — the seminal, comprehensive biography of a multitalented man who wrote more than his share of literary masterpieces himself.” — Foreword, Starred Review “With plenty of photographs, including of Cohen at his dapper best, this is a book to get lost in.” — Booklist, Starred Review An in-depth and amorous discussion of Cohen’s life and work, fans old and new will find this page-turner a refreshing take on the singer’s engagement with a broken heart and the laws of gravity. Leonard Cohen has aimed high: to be all Jewish heroes at once. Like Jacob, he struggled with angels. Like David, he sang psalms and seduced women. Like Abraham, he moved from place to place and remained a stranger everywhere. But he never ceased doing what he did best: stepping into avalanches and reviving our hearts. From Montreal and New York to the Greek island of Hydra, Leonard Cohen: The Man Who Saw the Angels Fall follows the singer’s cosmopolitan life and examines his perpetual dialogues with God, with himself, and with hotel rooms. After more than two decades of research, Christophe Lebold, who spent time with the poet in Los Angeles, delivers a stimulating analysis of Cohen’s life and art. Gracefully blending biography and essay, he interrogates the mission Cohen set out for himself: to show us that darkness is just the flip side of light.

About the Author :
Christophe Lebold is associate professor at the University of Strasbourg (France), where he teaches literature, performance studies, and rock culture. A fan and friend of Leonard Cohen, he has traveled extensively in the poet’s tracks. Also a theater actor and student of Zen, he likes poets, cats, and — in a good mood — all sentient beings.

Review :
“The book, like the singer, embraces the sacred and the profane. With plenty of photographs, including of Cohen at his dapper best, this is a book to get lost in.” — Booklist, Starred Review “This is a rhapsodic and fluidly written new take on Canadian poet/crooner/troubadour and pessimistic, introspective social commentator Cohen...This big biography of Cohen will appeal to a wide variety of readers, especially the philosophically minded.” — Library Journal “I am deeply respectful of the mind that has produced this book.” — Leonard Cohen, private email “Christophe Lebold’s biography of one of popular music’s greatest songwriters is outstanding, grounding its subject in the historical times that formed him and his art ... Leonard Cohen is a literary masterpiece — the seminal, comprehensive biography of a multitalented man who wrote more than his share of literary masterpieces himself.” — Foreword, Starred Review “An extraordinary piece of work, at every level … It’s the biographical denouement that Leonard deserves… Takes Cohenian biography to another level.” — Michael Posner, author of Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early Years “It’s marvelous and highly recommended. Crammed with photos, footnotes, a blizzard of evidence, of fantastic research and opinion: this is ESSENTIAL.” — Jim Devlin, author of Leonard Cohen: In His Own Words and In Every Style of Passion: The Works of Leonard Cohen “The best book about Leonard Cohen.” — Jean-Luc Porquet, Le canard enchainé “Combining scholarly biography, luminous exegesis, and metaphysics of the broken heart, this is the Summa Cohenia we needed. With Gilles Tordjman’s book, this is the best homage to the work of the Christ-loving Jewish poet.” — Bernard Loupias, Le nouvel observateur “An erudite and amorous page-turner on the wandering Canadian that reaches beyond dates and facts.” — Emmanuel Dosda, Poly “Cohen ceaselessly questions the world, as Christophe Lebold brilliantly demonstrates in Leonard Cohen: L’Homme qui voyait tomber les anges, a learned, vibrant, and inspired study devoted to the immortal creator of ‘Hallelujah.’” — Myriam Perfetti, Marianne