I’m Your Man By Sylvie Simmons For so many of us it feels as if Leonard Cohen has always been here, an intimate part of our lives, and yet, essentially unknown. Famous but intensely private; expressive yet entirely enigmatic – always, it seems, hiding in plain sight. Cohen is both a challenging and rewarding subject and I’m Your Man is everything one could hope for in a biography of one of Canada’s most iconic and world acclaimed artists. Sylvie Simmons pays tribute to his majestic career while sharing an intimate portrait of the music and literary scenes that are his life’s work – from his poetry debut in 1956, to his world tour supporting Old Ideas in 2012. Any appreciation of his creative output must of course take into account his eventful life and this is where Simmons is most illuminating. She is able to manoeuver through the myths and evasions that have always surrounded the legend that is Leonard Cohen. Simmons conducted interviews with more than 100 of Cohen’s friends and associates, including Judy Collins, Rebecca De Mornay, Marianne and both Suzannes. Cohen speaks candidly about being Jewish, his lifelong search for faith, his bouts of depression, his efforts at love and finally finding peace in acknowledging ‘the crack in everything…that’s how the light gets in’. In this definitive biography, Sylvie Simmons has given us a compelling picture of this complicated, exacting and elusive artist. For fans of Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Man is a gift – an opportunity to spend hours up as close as we can hope to get to this extraordinary, irresistible and enduring talent.