Harry's Trees

April 1, 2018
Set in rural Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains, this redemptive tale will speak to the hearts of those who've lost a loved one.Oriana, a young girl whose father died--in the snow, with arms outspread like angel wings--mourns deeply. She becomes lost in a fantasy of her father as a winged creature of the forest behind her house. She devours fairy tales given to her by Olive, the elderly librarian, and plays alone in the woods, sensing her father's presence. When Harry Crane, a 30-something USDA Forestry Service employee, makes an unexpected appearance in Oriana's forest, she's not surprised, for he is surely a sign. Harry, reeling from the loss of his wife (something he believes is his fault) is in deep despair when he meets Oriana. He discovers a book she'd lost in the woods--The Grum's Ledger, which should be required reading for everyone. The two form a bond, sanctioned by Oriana's mother, Amanda Jeffers, who hopes Harry will lead her daughter back to reality. The twisting, intriguing events that follow are anchored to reality but perceived by Oriana (and Harry) as magical. Cohen (Dentist Man, 1993, etc.) has plotted well and peopled his novel with a series of flawed, perhaps exaggerated characters. From Wolf, Harry's fearsome brother, to Ronnie, whose insecurities lie deep, to the lucky ones who get a visit from the elusive Susquehanna Santa, the characters entertain and irk. This is a story about grief and the many ways to heal; about redemption; about forgiveness; about letting go; but most of all, about the power of the human spirit to soar above tragedy and reunite with joy.Don't let the term fairy tale scare you away, for, as Cohen says, "Enchantment is a part of everyday existence." Oh, and it's also a chuckleworthy story.

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May 15, 2018

When U.S. Forest Service employee and lifelong lover of trees Harry Crane loses his wife in a freak accident, he also loses himself. A year later, Harry makes his way to a remote forest in the Endless Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania. There he meets Oriana, a young girl whose father died unexpectedly on the same day as Harry's wife. Since her father's death, Oriana has become a devout believer in fairy tales, and when she meets Harry, she's convinced that he's the one who must complete her story. After he finds a treehouse, fights a wolf, and discovers a very unusual book, Harry begins to believe that Oriana just might be right. VERDICT Part fairy tale and, at the same time, heartbreakingly realistic, Cohen's third novel (after The Man in the Window) will entrance readers from page one, and by the end, even skeptics will agree that magic can still be found in the most unlikely places and in the most surprising people if only we're willing to look.--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 11, 2018
Grief works in mysterious ways in this winsome but overstuffed novel from Cohen (The Man in the Window). Forestry service bureaucrat Harry Crane and rural ER nurse Amanda Jeffers are widowed on the same day. While Harry withdraws into the job he hates and spirals into a bleak depression, Amanda focuses her attention on her daughter, Oriana, who imagines that her father will return as an angel or a bird. But after Harry decides to kill himself and sets off to do so in the woods near Amanda’s home, an accident gives him a chance to connect with Oriana and undertake a life-changing adventure that forces all of them to question where magic (or luck) ends and reality (or chance) begins. Unfortunately, Cohen tries to do too much in an otherwise straightforward narrative. Appalachian decline, the role of books in society, health care dysfunction, and dendrology are all packed into the novel, but only add clutter to the central narrative. The result is a story that never truly gets beneath the surface.

Starred review from April 15, 2018
After Harry Crane, a U.S. Forest Service analyst, lost his wife in a freak accident on the streets of Philadelphia, he fled to the woods in northeast Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains to grieve and heal. A quirk of timing leads him to Amanda Jeffers and her precocious daughter, Oriana, who, like Harry, are also grieving; they've lost Dean, husband and father. After renting a tree house in Amanda's woods, Harry grows close to Oriana, who is desperate to find ways to reconnect with her dad. When the town librarian gives Oriana an ancient fairy tale, complete with an ogre and a mountain of gold, she thinks she has discovered a way to make that possible, but she'll need Harry's help. Battling a predatory brother named Wolf and a grasping tax collector, Harry and Oriana's quest for comfort and redemption is fraught with the genre's obligatory obstacles. After all, when a young girl asks you to believe in fairy tales, sometimes you just have to obey. In Cohen's capable hands, the unlikely teamwork between an optimistic child and a wary adult makes for a tender tale of first loves and second chances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)