Who By Fire: War, Atonement, and the Resurrection of Leonard Cohen

Recommended by Isaac Kohane, Marion V. Nelson Professor of Biomedical Informatics, chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, and professor of pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital

An account of Leonard Cohen’s journey to perform for Israeli troops during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The book weaves together Cohen’s crisis of faith and creativity with the larger historical moment, exploring how this experience transformed both the songwriter and the soldiers who witnessed his performances on the front lines. Also a meditation on Jewish particularism in its continued struggle with the universalist impulse.