Tish Cohen (born December 1, 1963, in Toronto)[2] is a Canadian novelist.
Early life
Born in Toronto, Cohen spent most of her childhood in Montreal, but spent her teenage years with her father beginning in the 7th grade at a high school in Orange County, California (The OC).[1][3][4]
Cohen is well known for her fast pace writing.[1] Her children's book The Invisible Rules of the Zoë Lama became a bestseller in Canada in 2007. Her novel Town house was a 2008 finalist for the Commonwealth Writers Prize' Best First Book Award (Canada and Caribbean region).[8][9] The right for making her novel Town House into a movie were bought by Ridley Scott's fim production company and optioned by Fox 2000 in 2005.[7][10] It was also translated into German and Italien and published as Super Agoraphobietherapie in Germany at Luchterhand Literaturverlag in 2009.[11]Kirkus Reviews attributed to the novel „a constellation of characters whose idiosyncrasies make the family of Little Miss Sunshine look like Ozzie and Harriet.".[12]Publishers Weekly criticized the plot as "formulaic", but also described the novel as "terrifically written".[13]The Globe and Mail reviewed the novel as follows: "There's more than quirky charm and endearing oddness in the characters Cohen creates." It compared it with Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street: "Cohen's Lucie a North American near-relative of McCall Smith's Bertie" and praised this as an "incredible achievement in itself".[14] The Toronto Star recommend the novel as one of four current canlit books for hot summer and described it as "Comic novel about an agoraphobe whose life begins to unravel."[15]
The novel Inside Out Girl was a Globe and Mail bestseller in 2009.[16]Allison Burnett signed an agreement to adapt the novel Inside Out Girl into a movie in August 2009.[17]
The novel The Truth About Delilah Blue, which deals with a young woman with an old father with Alzheimer's disease and an absent mother, was recommended as one of 10 summer reads by Vit Wagner of Toronto Star in 2010.[18] Cynthia MacDonald reviewed this novel for The Globe and Mail in June 2010 and considered it as "the summer's first terrific beach read".[19]
For Tish Cohen's novel "The Search Angel", whose topic is adoption,[20] the National Post attributed a "story telling talent" to the author in June 2013.[21]
