This Is How It Really Sounds

Ranging from the wicked noir Shanghai of 1946, to the echo chambers of Hollywood, to remote, snow-covered mountains, Stuart Archer Cohen's This Is How it Really Sounds follows three men, each in search of a different life. Small-town Alaskan "Harry" Harrington is a legend in a small circle, once the world's greatest extreme skier, racing avalanches and knocking back flips off of cliffs. Peter Harrington is a world-famous financier, hated across the globe for making hundreds of millions of dollars on his hedge fund, and fleeing New York to begin a new venture in Shanghai. Finally, there is Pete Harrington, a middle-aged rock star, now touring third-tier venues and fleeing bankruptcy, but hoping that one great new song can rescue him. All are seeking something that has slipped away--youth, power, purpose, magic; all are wonderful creations, whose strangely familiar lives and dreams become unforgettable. Mingling wickedly-funny satire with heart-stopping adventure, This is How it Really Sounds explores the seductive power of the unlived life, and what happens when you finally grasp it.

STUART ARCHER COHEN lives in Juneau, Alaska with his wife and two children. Two of his previous novels,Invisible World and 17 Stone Angels, have been translated into ten languages; a third,The Army of the Republic, has been optioned for film by Oliver Stone. Cohen has traveled extensively, and owns an international textile company called Invisible World, which trades wool, silk, alpaca and cashmere from China and South America.