37

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Pub Date 01 Oct 2021 | Archive Date 11 Feb 2022
Guernica Editions | Guernica World Editions

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Description

If small-town reporter Polly Stern has to cover one more manure runoff story, she's going to lose her already unmindful mind. Polly thought she'd end up as a serious photojournalist, traveling the world, meeting important people, and documenting significant environmental and social events. Life didn't turn out as expected. With her career at a standstill, her marriage over, her nest empty, her spiritual foundation precarious, and her family keeping a vital secret from her, Polly is desperate for answers. And change. She sets out on an unintended journey, stumbling upon story after story that for some reason—coincidence, fate?—all occurred in 1937. Polly's path leads her to: a troubled teen on a stone bridge high in the Green Mountains of Vermont, a political refugee on a kosher farm carved out of the Dominican Republic jungle, a tribal chief near a remote hut in uncharted Papua New Guinea, a volunteer soldier in a foggy olive grove in Spain, an artistic Italian savant in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and to a Tibetan boy and his snow-white mastiff as they begin their trek across the Himalayas. As the lines blur between reality and fantasy, between truth and fiction, between present and past, Polly writes about these inspiring characters, and others, in nine short stories—all set in 1937—embedded throughout the novel. Her compelling international literary voyage reveals clues that allow Polly to uncover the truth about her own history, opening a new path for understanding, forgiveness, and love.

If small-town reporter Polly Stern has to cover one more manure runoff story, she's going to lose her already unmindful mind. Polly thought she'd end up as a serious photojournalist, traveling the...


Advance Praise

Beautifully written. What I admire most are the characters: Emma, Jimmy, and Vitali and his family, most of all Teo—a great creation. The details and images are fresh and sharp. The historical background rings true. The sentences are strong and elegant, and Cohen's affection for her people comes shining through. — Howard Frank Mosher, recipient of a Guggenheim, a NationalEndowment for the Arts fellowship, A Vermont’s Governor’s Award, an NAACP award, and a New England Book Award


Joy Cohen has captured a particular year of both hope and despair, the great escape from the hardships of life in the Depression through the promise of the Golden Gate Bridge and the freedom of the Whale. Through it all is the will to overcome the challenges of the human condition. No more; no less: A great story! — John Hilferty, recipient of a Pulitzer Prize

Beautifully written. What I admire most are the characters: Emma, Jimmy, and Vitali and his family, most of all Teo—a great creation. The details and images are fresh and sharp. The historical...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781771836432
PRICE $21.95 (USD)
PAGES 340

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)

Average rating from 4 members


Featured Reviews

Every so often you stumble upon a book that neither the author nor the book was known to you, and it becomes an unexpected favourite you consider a gem. This is such a book. There are so many good things to say about this book - the interesting structure of the interconnected stories, the idea of the key parallels of “37”, the stories themselves which wander to fascinating places and time in history, but mostly the writing, which is lyrical in places and convincingly contemporary in others.
I see this as a mid-life crisis journey, both literally and figuratively. But mostly it’s about relationships, and how I read it, as the stories are connected in some way, so are all of us by experiencing what it means to be human, and how one person can make a huge difference in another’s life. The feelings of regret that are expressed in this novel ring true, for who amongst us doesn’t have an “if only” story they wonder about, or had to deal with challenges in relationships.
This book is compelling, relatable, joyful at times, incredibly sad in others. And I loved it. I have recommended this book to my book club, hoping it will be chosen. But all the same, I’m recommending it to everyone who enjoys good fiction, because in it’s varied stories, there is something of all of us.
Thank you to NetGalley and Guernica Editions for the ARC of this book, which I ended up buying anyway.

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