In Gates of Eden, Ethan Coen exhibits on the printed page the striking, twisted, yet devastatingly on-target vision of modern American life familiar from his movies. The world within the world we live in comes alive in fourteen brazenly original tragicomic short stories—from the Midwest mob war that fizzles due to the principals' ineptness to the trials of a deaf private eye with a blind client to a fugitive's heartbreaking explanation for having beheaded his wife, alarming in that it almost makes sense.

Gates of Eden: Stories

Humor & Entertainment

Coen, Ethan

Humor

Harper-perennial

Almost an Evening

Three satiric plays by Oscar-winning screenwriter Ethan Coen Raising Arizona, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading–the Coen brothers’ ﬁlms are some of the most critically acclaimed and iconic of our time. Now, one half of the duo, Ethan Coen, adds playwriting to his eclectic bio. In these three short plays that ran to sold-out audiences Off-Broadway in 2008, the theme is hell–both on earth and in the hereafter. In “Waiting,” a man faces an uncertain future in an uncertain location that seems to be some kind of waiting room. The anxiety and despair hark back to dramas of the ﬁfties–Sartre, Beckett, Pinter. “Four Benches” depicts an unlikely meeting in a steam room between a straight-talking Texan and an uptight Brit. Both men learn from the encounter, though only one survives it. In “Debate,” the cantankerous god of the Old Testament roundly abuses the mealymouthed god of the New. His profanity and ill humor receive a startling comeuppance, and further reversals and changes of point of view lead to a denouement that is no more preposterous than anything else in the play. Clever, provocative, and as engaging as the best ﬁction, these plays showcase yet another talent of one of our most celebrated contemporary writers.

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Broadway Books

Provocative, revealing, and often hilarious poems by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of No Country for Old Men In his screenplays and short stories, Ethan Coen surprises and delights us with a rich brew of ideas, observations, and perceptions. In his first collection of poems he does much the same. The range of his poems is remarkable–funny, ribald, provocative, sometimes raw, and often touching and profound. In these poems, Coen writes of his childhood, his hopes and dreams, his disappointments, his career in Hollywood, his physically demanding love affair with Mamie Eisenhower, and his decade-long battle with amphetamines that produced some of the lengthier poems in the collection. You will chuckle, nodding with recognition as you turn the pages, perhaps even stopping occasionally to read.

The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way: Poems

Crown

From one of the most inventive and celebrated filmmakers of the twentieth century, and co-creator of such classics as Fargo, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit, a collection of poems that offers humor and insight into an artist who has always pushed the boundaries of his craft. Ethan Coen's screenplays have surprised and delighted international audiences with their hilarious vision and bizarrely profound understanding of human nature. This eccentric genius is revealed again in The Day the World Ends, a remarkable range of poems that are as funny, ribald, provocative, raw, and often touching as the brilliant films that have made the Coen brothers cult legends.

The Day the World Ends: Poems

History & Criticism

Director Joel Coen's and producer Ethan Coen's Blood Simple (1984, River Road Prods/Circle Releasing/Palace) is a contemporary noir thriller set in Texas. A taut, convoluted plot and imaginative direction made the independent release a word-of-mouth hit and established the Coen brothers' reputation for originality. Actors John Getz, Frances McDormand, and Dan Hedaya appear in the story in which a woman commits adultery, and her enraged husband hires a killer for revenge. Blackmail, violence, and mistaken assumptions lead to an edgy, exhilarating climax.

Blood Simple (ST MARTIN'S ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY SERIES)

Coen, Joel

Movies

St Martins Pr

It's easy to see why Raising Arizona is one of the best and most beloved films that Ethan and Joel Coen have yet to create. The cultish humor, original characters, fresh cinematography, catchy soundtrack, and zany yet well-structured plot to be found in this film are all Coen brothers trademarks. Nicholas Cage plays a veteran criminal who marries a prison guard named Edwina (Holly Hunter). Because he and his wife cannot conceive, our convict-hero kidnaps, with only the most earnest intentions, one of the famous "Arizona Quintuplets." A hellacious bounty-hunting biker and two old pals who have just escaped from the pen make it very hard for the couple to raise their child properly. This is a movie—and a screenplay—marked by breathless chases, improbable scenes, and hilarious dialogue throughout.

Raising Arizona (ST MARTIN'S ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY SERIES)

St. Martin's: Griffin

Gates of Eden

A middle-aged man beheads his wife, then calmly explains how she drove him to it . . . A fat little mafioso is going to war--in the clean, well-mannered streets of Minneapolis . . . A Jewish boy watches with wonder the rise and fall of a Hebrew school rebel--and sees the sadness at the heart of his own family. . . . Welcome to the world of Ethan Coen, one half of the filmmaking team that has unleashed a visionary, brutal, and uproarious portrait of America in such screen classics as Fargo and Raising Arizona. Now Ethan Coen translates that vision to the printed page--in fourteen keenly imagined, sharply etched short stories. Blending parody with pathos, making the heinous heartbreaking, Coen demonstrates his unique gift for stunningly inventive narrative, brutal irony, offbeat characters, and crackling dialogue, delivering everything you would expect from such an original imagination.

Contemporary

Delta

A collection of stories by screenwriter Ethan Coen. Peopled with mobsters and hicks, and peppered with dialogue, some are send-ups of genre classics, while others are miniatures of private desperation.

Rob Weisbach/William Morrow. New York.

Gates Of Eden

Anchor (an imprint of Transworld Publishers Ltd )

The award winning Barton Fink is a dark psychological thriller set in Hollywood in the 1940s. It concerns an aspiring writer who gradually becomes sucked into a grisly world of violence and terror. Miller's Crossing reinventsthe 1930s gangster film in a complex story of love, friendship, and betrayal. Also in this edition is an introduction by Coen brothers' sometime editor Roderick Jaynes, who offers a rare insight into their world.

Barton Fink/Miller's Crossing. Screenplays for the Motion Pictures

Faber&Faber

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coen, Ethan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Coen, Ethan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Coen, Ethan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Gates of Eden: Stories

Almost an Evening

The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way: Poems

The Day the World Ends: Poems

Blood Simple (ST MARTIN'S ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY SERIES)

Raising Arizona (ST MARTIN'S ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY SERIES)

Gates of Eden

Gates of Eden

Gates Of Eden

Barton Fink/Miller's Crossing. Screenplays for the Motion Pictures