Words At Large

(Photo: Jay Lee) How do you bear the death of someone you love? Matt Cohen explores the question with grace and humor in his novel Last Seen (Vintage).

It’s the tale of two brothers, middle-aged Alec and his younger sibling Harold. When Harold dies of cancer, Alec stumbles through a time of grief and confusion, acting in ways that worry his family and friends.

Things bizarre and miraculous begin to occur. Alec finds himself in a surreal fantasy, visiting a bar called Club Elvis where the dead and the living mingle.

Asked about inventing Club Elvis, Cohen said "If you're going to entertain the notion that someone can come back from the dead and if you're part of the rock 'n' roll generation, then Elvis has got to cross your mind."

Nuff said.

Canadian actor R.H.Thompson narrates.

Each episode of this Between The Covers reading is 15 to 16 minutes.

Episode four: Just back from Club Elvis, Alec tries to make sense of the experience.

Episode five: When he sees his dead brother, Alec fears he's going insane.

Episode six: Alec remembers his tangled relationship with his brother's girlfriend.

Cohen lost his own brother to cancer in the early '90s and less than a decade later succumbed to the disease himself. The Matt Cohen Prize is presented annually in Cohen's memory by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. The $20,000 prize honors a distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian literature.

If you missed previous podcasts you can download them at Between the Covers podcasts.

And if you’re interested in readings of other Canadian books, check out the Hear A Reading page on the Between The Covers site. At the moment, you can listen to Clara Callan (HarperFlamingo), Richard B. Wright ‘s tale of two sisters in the early part of the last century, plus stories from Vincent Lam’s award-winning book Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures (Doubleday).