“In those days Harry didn’t recognize that the price of admission to the life he wanted was surrendering the tickets to all the other lives he might have had.” 
That’s the opening line of Juneau resident Stuart Cohen’s new novel “This Is How it Really Sounds.” This is Cohen’s sixth book and it’s hitting bookstores now. While the opening line hints at the novel’s theme, Cohen says the book revolves around three main characters.
“One is the world extreme skiing champion circa 1982 who’s almost not seen at all in the book. Another is this faded rock star in his mid-forties who has lost all his money and is an alcoholic. And another is this disgraced financier who’s living large in Shanghai on his ill-gotten hundreds and millions of dollars and is hated the world over.”
Cohen says that connecting the three characters was a challenge, but it worth it. He says this novel is a departure from his previous books.
“I’ve written four other novels and especially the last two were basically set ‘em up knock ‘em down books. You set everything up and it’s like dominoes and you get the last 50 or 60 pages and you just start knocking them down one by one and it’s very exciting. And it’s fun, and you know what you’re doing when you’re writing it. But this book, it has a climax, but it doesn’t move like that conventional plot.”
Stuart Cohen’s new novel “This Is How it Really Sounds.”Cohen is available online and will be in bookstores soon.
