Synopses & Reviews
One block. Four neighbors. One very loud problem. Black and white, young and old, men and women, they live in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill, sharing a courtyard in relative harmony. It's what a former mayor liked to call "the urban mosaic." There's Carol Fasone, a secretary enjoying her new marriage to a Bosnian immigrant. There's Mitchell Brett, a Wall Streeter transplanted from Manhattan's Upper East Side, trying to get his wife pregnant. There's Grace Howard, hoping for a promotion in her corporate job, surprised to find herself beginning a romance with a member of the Board. And then there's teenage Jamel Wilson, who buys a big sound system to impress his friends from the projects around the corner, blasts gangster rap into the backyard gardens, and--over the course of one hot summer--pushes the block's friendships and alliances past the breaking point. In Boombox, the author of the Edgar Award-nominated mystery novel Red Hook turns to a different kind of story: a finely-observed urban drama, and a heartfelt, unflinching answer to Rodney King's plaintive question: "Can we all get along?"
Review
"... Cohen's tight plot, complex characters and vibrant cityscape create a convincing slice of urban life." — Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Cohen’s first novel, Red Hook, was published by St Martin’s Press in 2001. Otto Penzler, famed bookseller and editor, called the book “atmospheric, and shot through with moments of real truth." Cohen has written for The New York Times, Time Out New York and The Progressive. He lives in Brooklyn.