Synopses & Reviews
Jack Madigan is, by many accounts, blessed. He can still effortlessly turn a pretty head. And thanks to his legendary rock star father, he lives an enviable existence in a once-glorious, now-crumbling Boston town house with his teenage son, Harlan. But there is one tiny drawback: Jack is an agoraphobe. As long as his dad's admittedly dwindling royalties keep rolling in, Jack's condition isn't a problem. But then the money runs out . . . and all hell breaks loose.
The bank is foreclosing. Jack's ex is threatening to take Harlan to California. And Lucinda, the little girl next door, won't stay out of his kitchen . . . or his life. To save his sanity, Jack's path is clear, albeit impossible—he must outwit the bank's adorably determined real estate agent, win back his house, keep his son at home, and, finally, with Lucinda's help, find a way back to the world outside his door.
Review
In her first novel, Tish Cohen has written an original portrait of a pathetic man that is at times sardonically comic and humanly poignant. Never straying into sentimentality or veering off course into ludicrousness, Cohen's Jack Madigan is a three-dimensional, albeit anomalous, lost soul of our modern, twisted, fractured, society. Rex Pickett, author of Sideways
Review
"Hysterically funny, compassionate, and brilliantly observed, Tish Cohen's Town House is a winner!" Karen Quinn, author of The Ivy Chronicles and Wife in the Fast Lane
Review
“...sardonically comic and humanly poignant.” Rex Pickett, New York Times bestselling author of SIDEWAYS
Review
“TOWN HOUSE is a poignant, acerbic and charming novel with real heart. Make room on your bookshelf for Tish Cohen.” Barbara Delinsky, New York Times bestselling author of A WOMAN BETRAYED
Synopsis
Jack Madigan should be leading an enviable life. He's the sole heir of a '70s rock icon. He lives with his retro-obsessed teenage son, Harlan, in a once-magnificent Boston town house. But now 36, Jack's painting career is buckling under a raging case of agoraphobia. And when the foreclosure notice arrives, Jack must face losing the only home he's ever known--and his only safe zone. When Jack's ex-wife announces that Harlan would be better off living with her and her vitamin-enriched fianc', Jack has to figure out how to deter the perky, inexperienced real-estate agent, hold on to his house, keep his son at home, and--through the tenacity of the little girl next door--finally step out onto the sidewalk.
Fox 2000 swooped in to pre-empt the film rights while Town House was still on submission to publishers. Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions is set to produce the movie and Pulitzer Prize-winning screenwriter Doug Wright (Memoirs of a Geisha) is adapting the screenplay. A book with the ability to both entertain and move us, Town House is a smart, acerbic novel bursting with heart and quirky charm.
About the Author
Tish Cohen is the author of Town House, short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada and Caribbean region), which is in development as a feature film. She also writes a series of children's books, collectively titled the ZoË Lama. Cohen lives in Toronto.