
About the Author
Richard Shain Cohen, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is originally from Boston. He retired from the University of Maine, Presque Isle after serving as the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of English. His publications include Petal on A Black Bough, chapters in AROOSTOOK:LAND OF PROMISE, reviews and articles and a monograph on Samuel Richardson which can be found in major library holdings. He was also editor of the journal, Husson Review and principal participant in a National Endowment for the Arts Grant for “Images of Aroostook." He is currently working on his father's memoirs.


Jocelyn, a Catholic and a renowned singer, is married to a Jewish, immigrant physician, Aaron. With conflicting careers, religious beliefs, and social status, they struggle throughout their marriage. The strain intensifies when their four sons are sent to battle during World War II.
Adding to Jocelyn's worries is her brother, Joseph, who has become an agent for the British. He works as a spy in the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, eventually marrying a German double agent, Elena. Elena comes to America to live, but, mistakenly believes her husband died in battle and returns to occupied France. Jocelyn, meanwhile, seeks a semblance of stability while trying to reconcile differences with Aaron and also with her difficult daughter-in-law, Lou Ann.
These home problems occur as her sons' letters arrive describing their trials on the battlefields. What the letters do not reveal is the sons' knowledge that their uncle, Joseph, committed a revenge murder. The question is whether Jocelyn's strength is enough to carry the family through such tragic events, or whether she will succumb to the intensity of her own pain.
$16.95 | Paperback ISBN: 1414037317 | Hardcover ISBN: 1414037309
EXCERPT | DETAILS | PURCHASE: Email or call 207-767-1895

Marion deserts her fiancé, Warren, and elopes to France with the artist Giselle. Returning to Warren, she meets Jocelyn, a celebrated singer, and the wife of Aaron Lobel, a physician. Aaron has established a clinic for the poor, anathema to the Massachusetts Medical Society of that day. He courageously combats his opposition while his wife resolutely continues with her career. Marion becomes a college professor. The Lobel son Jeremie comes to teach at the college. He and Marion become links for the contrast between the Lobel and Worfield families. The deceitful college president, Edmond Worfield, and his wife, Lisa, desire an exemplary family, as their frustrated and disappointing sons, Nelson and Conrad, compete over the Worfield's ward, Frances, they prevent the Worfields' wished for fulfillment. Within this turmoil, Marion succeeds and Jeremie learns the secret of his parents' turbulent relationship.
End of the Week shows that courage, endurance, and love triumph over cowardice, conspiracy, and degeneracy, that these intertwined persons sustain or destroy themselves by self-indulgence or commitment to social benefit.
$16.95 | ISBN: 0595125808
PURCHASE: Email or call 207-767-1895

Petal on a Black Bough
FICTION | HISTORICAL / FANTASY
Petal on a Black Bough is historical/ fantasy. It is a fusion of Celtic mythology with the reality of World War I to the start of World War II, a period that includes the Irish struggle for independence. The mythological warrior-goddess Medb (Maeve) known for sorcery, licentiousness, and affinity for war, emerges from the past to seek warriors who will help with Ireland’s independence.
Her powers also enable her to shape shift, change ages, and migrate through space and time. Medb finds her hero, Philip, in a French hospital for the wounded where she masquerades as nurse, Lady Madeline. Unfortunately, their alliance and affair result in tragedy because of her eventual transformation to a near human state. Her change affects those within her circle, including her heir, Maeve Dwyer to whom Medb has given her spirit. The others in the group include Maeve’s artist lover Matthew, as well as her father Patrick who smuggles guns to the Irish; but the irony of the conversion from Medb to Maeve Dwyer affirms the futility of war and the necessity of love and peace.
PURCHASE
Now available now, through richard.cohen@blackboughbooks.com.
Obtain by e-mail Richard above
$16.95 out-of-state; $8 S&H;
$16.95 In-state (incl. tax); $8 S&H
Books may be purchased throughrichard.cohen@blackboughbooks.com or through local book stores, or by contacting richard.cohen@blackboughbooks.com.
http://www.blackboughbooks.com

Only God Can Make A Tree
POETRY COLLECTION
The works are a collaboration of two brothers, Alfred Robert Cohen (posthumous) and Richard Shain Cohen and relate primarily to Maine, New York, and Texas. The collection is that of love, childhood, the transfiguration of forests as seen through the seasons, the seas of Maine and Texas, the effects of the newly discovered universe upon the psyche and how this affects poetry. Here are insights regarding nature and the stages of human life.
"What poetry should be -- a meeting of the cerebral and the sensuous; a dismantling of dulling cliches and offering in their place stirring visual insights into our doubts and fears and joys." .
Rosemary Coleman, artist and Professor Emerita of English and Literature, Illinois Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois
PURCHASE
Now available now, through richard.cohen@blackboughbooks.com.
Obtain by e-mail Richard above
$14 out-of-state; $8 S&H;
$15 In-state (incl. tax); $8 S&H
Books may be purchased throughrichard.cohen@blackboughbooks.com or through local book stores, or by contacting richard.cohen@blackboughbooks.com.
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