<p>'Daddy walks around, dropping pieces of language behind him, the baby following, picking them up. He asks for 'the liquid substance from the spigot'. She asks for 'wawa'. He wants a tissue to wipe his 'blowing device'. She says 'Wipe, Mummy' and points to her runny nose. The brain of my father and the brain of my daughter have crossed. On their ways to opposite sides of life, they have made an X-On his way out of life, Daddy has passed her the keys.' Soon after her daughter's first birthday, her husband walked out of their rambling old house in the country, leaving Elizabeth to come to terms with his absence and her new role as carer to a growing, demanding child, and a shrinking, demanding father. Elizabeth has no choice but to be the rock at the centre of her new, unusual family. Amidst the chaos of the house on Beartown Road, she discovers a new beauty in being in the middle of two universal stages of life and learning. She watches the growth of her baby Ava, hungrily learning about the world around her, and at the other extreme her father, trying to hold on to the fragments of his memory, fighting a losing battle against forgetting, but despite it all, capable of learning. And she begins to learn about herself, as someone who is strong, courageous and capable of looking after her family. Beautifully written, this book is a homage to the reality of family life.</p>

The House on Beartown Road : A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting

Elizabeth Cohen

Ebury & Vermilion

In this beautiful book, Elizabeth Cohen gives us a true and moving portrait of the love and courage of a family. Elizabeth, a member of the “sandwich generation,” people caught in the middle of simultaneously caring for their children and for their aging parents, is the mother of Ava and the daughter of Daddy and responsible for both. Hers is the story of a woman’s struggle to keep her family whole, to raise her child in a house of laughter and love, and to keep her father from hiding the house keys in his slippers. In this story full of everyday triumphs, first steps, and elderly confusion, Ava, a baby, finds each new picture, each new word, each new song something to learn greedily, joyfully. Daddy is a man in his twilight years for whom time moves slowly and lessons are not learned but quietly, frustratingly forgotten. Elizabeth, a suddenly single mother with a career and a mortgage and a hamper of laundry, finds her world spiraling out of control yet full of beauty. Faced with mounting disasters, she chooses to confront life head on. Written in prose imbued with unquenchable spirit, The House on Beartown Road is a journey through the remarkable landscape that is family.

The House on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Love and Courage [UNABRIDGED]

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

Blackstone Audiobooks

<p>Elizabeth, suddenly a single mother with a career, a mortgage and a hamper of laundry, finds her world spiraling out of control yet full of beauty. Caring for her elderly father, and raising her daughter, Ava, brings triumphs, first steps, and elderly confusion. Faced with mounting disasters, Elizabeth chooses to confront life head-on.</p>

The House on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting

Parenting & Relationships

Thorndike Press

From the first page to the last, one is reminded of the contract life makes between the material body of the world and the soul. There are challenges. In "Lo and Behold," the poet admits, "There is not enough bandwidth in the world/to record such busy loveliness/....It hurts the heart, really, this explosion of song,/ this flip book of life." And yet, despite yearning and loss, these poems find a way to be in the world that is radiant and real. As the poems accumulate, one feels the consoling presence of the poet. One comes to understand how human beauty springs from compassion and intelligence. This is a lovely collection. (Jerry Mirskin) Elizabeth Cohen's poetry collection, "The Economist's Daughter," is a poignant meditation on the death of her father. It is a must-read for those who grieve, for all those who, like Cohen, inhabit the "country of last ideas," that harsh borderland where we struggle to reconcile our need to continue living with the "gobsmacking absence" of those we have lost. Cohen's poems are marvelous, gripping, continually surprising, yet always at home in a radiant dailiness. (Joe Ahearn)

The Economist's Daughter (Poetry Series)

Excited Utterance Imprints

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Books by Elizabeth Cohen

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

The House on Beartown Road : A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting

The House on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Love and Courage [UNABRIDGED]

The House on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting

The Economist's Daughter (Poetry Series)