An Admirable Woman

“Erika Hertz, a famous political philosopher, the admirable woman of the title … quickly becomes more than merely a brain. Without ever losing the quality of mind that accounts for her fame, Mr. Cohen creates a whole person and endears her to the reader … Mr. Cohen has written a novel about not-Hannah Arendt. He uses the denial brilliantly to inform the novel and to overlay it with the suspense of a puzzle … He has used the novelist’s imagination to explore fame in the intellectual world, to reveal life overwhelmed by ethics, to take the reader to the miraculous town.”

—Earl Shorris, The New York Times

“This unusual and distinguished novel demands one’s full attention, for anything less will be unequal to the authority of its narrative voice. It is a fiction which reads like fact; it is, in addition, an intellectual exercise not only for the writer—for whom it must have been as exhilarating as it was formidable—but for the reader as well … What is beguiling about this novel is that it sets its face so resolutely against any sort of dream fulfillment in the ordinary sense.”

—Anita Brookner, The Sunday Times

“A fine novel.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Engrossing … brilliant.”

—Valentine Cunningham, The Observer

Arthur Cohen (1928-1986) was a novelist, publisher, and the author of much nonfiction on the history of modern Jewish thought.

In 1951, he co-founded the Noonday Press with Cecil Hemley. In 1954, he founded Meridian Books. He was also editor in chief of Holt, Rinehart & Winston and served on the board of the PEN American Center. His novel, An Admirable Woman, won the National Jewish Book Award. He lived in New York City.