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.