Strangers and Cousins

A Novel

By: Leah Hager Cohen

Narrated by: Leah Hager Cohen

Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

One of The Washington Post's Ten Best Books of the Year
One of Christian Science Monitor's Best Fiction of 2019

"Funny and tender but also provocative and wise.... One of the most hopeful and insightful novels I've read in years." (Ron Charles, The Washington Post)

"Serious yet joyous comedy, reminiscent of the Pultizer-winning Less" (Out Magazine)

A novel about what happens when an already sprawling family hosts an even larger and more chaotic wedding: an entertaining story about family, culture, memory, and community.

In the seemingly idyllic town of Rundle Junction, Bennie and Walter are preparing to host the wedding of their eldest daughter, Clem. A marriage ceremony at their beloved, rambling home should be the happiest of occasions, but Walter and Bennie have a secret. A new community has moved to Rundle Junction, threatening the social order and forcing Bennie and Walter to confront uncomfortable truths about the lengths they would go to to maintain harmony.

Meanwhile, Aunt Glad, the oldest member of the family, arrives for the wedding plagued by long-buried memories of a scarring event that occurred when she was a girl in Rundle Junction. As she uncovers details about her role in this event, the family begins to realize that Clem's wedding may not be exactly what it seemed. Clever, passionate, artistic Clem has her own agenda. What she doesn't know is that by the end, everyone will have roles to play in this richly imagined ceremony of familial connection - a brood of quirky relatives, effervescent college friends, ghosts emerging from the past, a determined little mouse, and even the very group of new neighbors whose presence has shaken Rundle Junction to its core.

With Strangers and Cousins, Leah Hager Cohen delivers a story of pageantry and performance, hopefulness and growth, and introduces a winsome, unforgettable cast of characters whose lives are forever changed by events that unfold and reverberate across generations.

©2019 Leah Hager Cohen (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Cheerful and lively, Cohen’s new novel - set at an anarchic family gathering in rural New York - packs a lot of themes into its satisfyingly simple frame. As in a Shakespearean comedy, disparate relationships are resolved and familial love prevails." (New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice)

"Cohen’s characters are familiar in their failings and lovable in their tender quirks. Her writing style and tone lend a lightweight grace to at-times heavy subject matter.... Cohen’s gentle philosophizing reminds us that while the past may not even be past, and the future often feels dangerously obscure, the present - bountifully populated by both strangers and cousins - offers its own rewards, if we choose to embrace them." (Bookpage)

"Cohen perfectly captures the chaos of a big family event, with all the personalities and baggage that come with the territory, adeptly mixing humor and sentiment to create an intoxicatingly rich story that bursts off the page with life." (Booklist)

A crazy, enjoyable listen!

This book is really unusual. The characters are kooky, but there’s a serious story.
I really liked it.

A mixed (ambivalent) bag

Some of the writing is so incredibly good that it manages to shine through the other schmaltzy words and voice with which it is packaged. Hint: authors probably ought to avoid writing words they don’t know how to pronounce if they intend to record them. With apologies for sounding snarky here, the good parts do make the whole worthwhile.

A Delightful Surprise

Warm, witty, provocative, brimming with individuality. I'd love a sequel set 5 or so years later....

Surprising, Delightful Insights

Woven throughout this peek into a family and community, are splendid insights into the warp & weft of profound events that ripple through our lives and into the future. This beautiful, sweet story holds perspective that makes this a must read.

This Author should NEVER read for Audible

I very much enjoyed the start of this book and then decided to pair it with the kindle version as an experiment. I liked the writing very much and the story might have been fine, but I was so irritated by Cohen's excessively twinkly voice, no matter whom she was portraying. The cuteness completely detracted from some of the real issues raised by the narrative.