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Rich Cohen Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Rich Cohen
Photo: Jeremy Medoff

Rich Cohen

Rich Cohen Biography

Rich Cohen is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tough Jews, The Avengers, Monsters, and (with Jerry Weintraub) When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead. He is a co-creator of the HBO series Vinyl and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone and has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Harper's Magazine, among others. Cohen has won the Great Lakes Book Award, the Chicago Public Library's 21st Century Award, and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for outstanding coverage of music. His stories have been included in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing. He lives in Connecticut.

Rich Cohen's website

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Interview

Rich Cohen offers in-depth answers for The Avengers: A Jewish War Story. Who were the Avengers? Why was the story of the Avengers kept a secret? Which key player in the story is Cohen related? Are the Avengers heroes or murderers? Cohen also discusses the criticism received for writing Tough Jews.

Who were the Avengers?
The Avengers were a group of young Jews, some still in their teens, who found themselves caught in the Holocaust; who, given a choice to get on the trains or to go underground, to die or to fight, chose to fight. Abba Kovner, who was the leader of the group, phrased the dilemma this way: "If we act cowardly, we die; if we act courageously, we die. So we might as well act courageously." The story centers around Abba Kovner, Vitka Kempner and Ruzka Korczak. Vitka and Ruzka, who were from towns in Western Poland, had fled the German invasion on foot, walking clear to Vilna, which later became the capital of Lithuania, where they met Abba, a young Zionist leader. From then on, the lives of these three young people were entangled -- in love and in war. When the Jews of the city were locked in a ghetto, they formed an underground, smuggling and stealing weapons, spreading the call to revolt, going on raids. At nineteen, Vitka led a mission to the forest, where she blew up an enemy troop train -- the first sabotage in Occupied Europe. When the Germans liquidated the ghetto, Abba led the group through the sewers and into the forest, where they waged a guerrilla war. Joining with the Red Army, the Avengers fought ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Rich Cohen at BookBrowse
Sweet and Low jacket The Avengers jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Rich Cohen but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Peter Duffy

    Peter Duffy

    Peter Duffy was born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., the son of a television newscaster and a martial arts instructor. After attending Niagara University and the University of Pittsburgh, he was a journalist in New York City. ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Avengers

    Try:
    The Bielski Brothers
    by Peter Duffy

  • Jack Fairweather

    Jack Fairweather

    Jack Fairweather is a former war reporter in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been a correspondent for the Washington Post and the Daily Telegraph, where he served as the Baghdad and Persian Gulf bureau chief. His reporting ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Avengers

    Try:
    The Volunteer
    by Jack Fairweather

We recommend 7 similar authors

View all 7 Read-Alikes

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Top Picks

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