Cohen has taken her fascination with – and personal dependence on – one great author and transmutes it into something any reader in the world will find downright marvelous.

... a complicated hybrid of a book that mixes Cohen’s singular insight into Austen as a writer with Cohen’s personal life.

Cohen’s incisive new book explores her immersion into Austen’s work during a fraught period in her personal life. Ultimately a narrative about grief, loss and resurfacing, it also provides a deep dive into some of Austen’s most penetrating writing.

[I] hereby advise you to read at least four if not all six of Jane Austen’s novels before you attempt Cohen’s extended meditation on them, and do not try to get away with watching the movie versions. If you disobey me, the main thing you will take away from Cohen’s book is that you must read all of Jane Austen as soon as possible.

'Criticism and memoir have always been near neighbors,' the author points out. Austen Years straddles the property line between the two neighbors brilliantly.

This is a wondrous mix of memoir and biography as Cohen provides detailed portraits of Austen, her family, and their world and analyzes how this context inspired Austen’s indelible novels. This is a book not to be hurried through but consumed in small portions and pondered over as it sparks introspection. The deep knowledge of and respect for Austen’s novels will equally impress Austenites and readers less versed in her works, and all will appreciate the information found in Cohen’s notes and bibliography. As readers absorb these pages, personal notes will be made and quotes shared..

...a thoughtful meditation on the interweaving of literature and life.

In this erudite if uneven exploration of connection and loss, essayist Cohen...draws parallels between her own life and Jane Austen’s life and literary legacy.