Heart, You Bully, You Punk

Ebook
On sale Nov 10, 2020 | 224 Pages | 9780593330593

A high school girl, her father, and her math teacher: through this unlikely trio, Leah Hager Cohen charts the complexities of the human heart as only she can.

Esker (she prefers to go solely by her last name) is a thirty-one-year-old high school teacher at the Prospect School in Brooklyn who, after various heartbreaks and disappointments, has found a quiet resolve in her lonely spinster routine. But when a mysterious fall leaves her star math student injured and housebound until exams, Esker begins tutoring the precocious teenager at home. And soon, much against her will, she begins falling edgily, haltingly in love with the girl's father.

Charged with Esker's own irreverence and wit, Heart, You Bully, You Punk sweeps us irresistibly into her profound and wistful struggle to unite the rest of her self with her unruly heart.
© Liz Linder Photography

Leah Hager Cohen is the author of five works of nonfiction, including Train Go Sorry, and five novels, including The Grief of Others, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her latest novel, Strangers and Cousins, was published in 2019 and named one of the ten best books of that year by The Washington Post. She is the Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross. 
www.leahhagercohen.com

View titles by Leah Hager Cohen
Praise for Leah Hager Cohen:

"Cheerful and lively."New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

"A beautiful novel by one of our most gifted and insightful writers." –Ann Packer, New York Times bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and The Children’s Crusade

"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] serious yet joyous comedy, reminiscent of the Pulitzer-winning Less, as it tackles issues of racism, anti-semitism, zoning, and pollution with a satirical edge. Cohen’s demonstration of a modern family, and the hopes it may have, are a triumph and well worth your read." –Out.com

"An absolute delight. . . A perfect summer novel: funny and tender but also provocative and wise. . .Cohen’s ability to acknowledge the agony of that strife in the context of a modern, loving family makes this one of the most hopeful and insightful novels I’ve read in years." Ron Charles, The Washington Post

About

A high school girl, her father, and her math teacher: through this unlikely trio, Leah Hager Cohen charts the complexities of the human heart as only she can.

Esker (she prefers to go solely by her last name) is a thirty-one-year-old high school teacher at the Prospect School in Brooklyn who, after various heartbreaks and disappointments, has found a quiet resolve in her lonely spinster routine. But when a mysterious fall leaves her star math student injured and housebound until exams, Esker begins tutoring the precocious teenager at home. And soon, much against her will, she begins falling edgily, haltingly in love with the girl's father.

Charged with Esker's own irreverence and wit, Heart, You Bully, You Punk sweeps us irresistibly into her profound and wistful struggle to unite the rest of her self with her unruly heart.

Author

© Liz Linder Photography

Leah Hager Cohen is the author of five works of nonfiction, including Train Go Sorry, and five novels, including The Grief of Others, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her latest novel, Strangers and Cousins, was published in 2019 and named one of the ten best books of that year by The Washington Post. She is the Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross. 
www.leahhagercohen.com

View titles by Leah Hager Cohen

Praise

Praise for Leah Hager Cohen:

"Cheerful and lively."New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

"A beautiful novel by one of our most gifted and insightful writers." –Ann Packer, New York Times bestselling author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and The Children’s Crusade

"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] serious yet joyous comedy, reminiscent of the Pulitzer-winning Less, as it tackles issues of racism, anti-semitism, zoning, and pollution with a satirical edge. Cohen’s demonstration of a modern family, and the hopes it may have, are a triumph and well worth your read." –Out.com

"An absolute delight. . . A perfect summer novel: funny and tender but also provocative and wise. . .Cohen’s ability to acknowledge the agony of that strife in the context of a modern, loving family makes this one of the most hopeful and insightful novels I’ve read in years." Ron Charles, The Washington Post