National Indie Excellence Award 2022
Finalist Literary Fiction
A Season Unknown is both a poetic parable about the beauty and fragility of our endangered earth and a compelling story of childhood and adolescence, love and friendship, families and fragile marriage. Cohen's kind and compassionate voice is a steady presence unifying realism and fantasy in this moving and timely novel about vulnerable young people who love, and are desperate to preserve, their vulnerable world. —Carol Robinson
“A lush and allegorical novel." —The Boston Globe
"Inherently interesting, clever and unique." —Midwest Book Review
“The prose echoes with tenderness and pathos."—Kirkus Reviews
“A tale for this precise moment of environmental precipice…”
—The Boston Globe
From the time he is a small child, Malach reveals unique and unexplained connections with the animals that inhabit the wilderness surrounding him. As Malach grows, so too does his knowledge of the workings and mysteries of the natural world. His mother, Judith, fearful for him and struggling to understand the gift her son possesses, is determined to protect him at all costs. While grappling with the uncertainty of where Malach’s future will lead, Judith must confront her own painful and secretive past.
Approaching adulthood, joined by his brilliant and fiery girlfriend, Ginny, Malach brings a profound awareness of the earth to a world facing a precariously changing climate and existential perils. Together they begin to deliver a message of transformation, sacrifice, and even revolution in how we live our lives. Their story of love, and triumph over loss, is at the heart of this urgent coming-of-age story where time is no longer a luxury.
More Praise for A Season Unknown
"In A Season Unknown, child psychologist Keith Cohen inventively reimagines our relationship to the natural world. Malach’s emotional, mystical journey toward adulthood and activism reframes the often overwhelming climate crisis in terms that we can easily understand—those of a single human life."
—Mark Beauregard, author of The Whale: A Love Story, finalist for the 2016 Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Prize for First Fiction
“An imaginative and searing exposition of how strange, confusing, and unjust it must seem to young people to learn that nature is in peril and the climate is on the brink. A clear look at life in the last years we have to make a change. A Season Unknown belongs alongside Richard Powers’s The Overstory and Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible.”
—Spencer Glendon, Founder of Probable Futures
"In A Season Unknown, Keith Cohen creates a metaphysical novel with big ideas and bigger heart. Its ecological and environmental spirituality will remind readers of the works of Barbara Kingsolver. It is a profoundly magical yet sometimes tragic work, but the rich language, vivid characters, and beautiful moments will ultimately leave readers with an uplifting and needed story."
—Tim Huggins, bookselling entrepreneur & cofounder of Earfull
“This book will have you drawn to Malach with the same inexplicable intensity as those around him. Cohen’s slow, deliberate pacing lends the prose an almost dreamlike quality as Malach's story unfolds. Fans of Max Porter's Lanny and Catherine Lacey's Pew will love A Season Unknown.”
—Katherine Nazzaro, Porter Square Books
“A Season Unknown is an exceptionally powerful story that thoughtfully engages us to realize the increasing threats we face from our changing climate and the inherent risks to the wellbeing of all life on our fragile planet. Cohen's timely message is bound to inspire readers to reflect on how much is at stake, as we are moved to determine a path that leads to solutions for the most urgent environmental issues of our time. “
—Marcia Cooper, Environmental Activist and President of Green Newton
“A modern fable – a beautiful collision of Aesop and Franz Kafka – that offers a challenging yet hopeful exploration of our perilous times.”
—Nick Petrulakis, events coordinator at DIESEL, A Bookstore