SO LONG, MARIANNE

by Kari Hesthamar




Original Norwegian edition (2008)
Scroll down for the Canadian edition in English (2014)
and the Greek edition (also 2014)


Title So Long, Marianne - Ei kärleikshistorie
Author Kari Hesthamar
Country & Year Norway 2008
Publisher Spartacus, Norway
Pages 256 pages
Notes ISBN 8243004483
Language: Norwegian
Summary Marianne Ihlen was 23 years old when she arrived on the Greek island of Hydra. Leonard Cohen immortalised her in the song “So long, Marianne.” The story begins in the 1950s, in Oslo, a town marked by jazz and a budding youth rebellion. Together with her boyfriend Axel Jensen, Marianne runs away to Greece and lands on the island of Hydra, where a few international artists have already congregated, and they are soon joined by Göran Tunstrøm. Axel and Marianne buy a small white washed house where Axel Jensen amongst other stories writes his novel Line. After a couple of years Axel leaves the island, Marianne and their six months little son, for another woman. One day Marianne was in the village shop with her basket waiting to pick up bottled water and milk, a dark man is standing in the doorway with the sun behind him. He is saying: “Would you like to join us, we’re sitting outside?” It is Leonard Cohen. He calls her the most beautiful woman he has ever met. Cohen drives her home from Greece to Oslo. Later she receives a telegram from Montreal: “Have house. All I need is my woman and her son. Love Leonard.” Shortly afterwards she goes to Canada with her little boy. Cohen, Marianne and “little Axel” live together during the 60s, and commute between Montreal, New York and Hydra. Cohen dedicated his collection of poetry, Flowers for Hitler, to her. He has written many of his most famous poems and songs inspired by Marianne.

Now, for the first time Marianne tells her story in this book, in co-operation with Kari Hesthamar. The book is illustrated with never before seen photos, facsimiles and letters.











Title So Long, Marianne - A Love Story
Author Kari Hesthamar
Translated by Helle V. Goldman
Country & Year Canada 2014
Publisher ECW Press, Toronto, Canada
Pages 220 pages
Notes ISBN 9781770411289
hardcover
Language: English
eBook also available
Summary "The story of the enigmatic beauty who captured the hearts of two extraordinary men At 22, Marianne Ihlen travelled to the Greek island of Hydra with Norwegian writer Axel Jensen. While Axel wrote, Marianne kept house, until Axel abandoned her and their newborn son for another woman. One day while Marianne was shopping in a little grocery store, in walked a man who asked her to join him and some friends outside at their table. He introduced himself as Leonard Cohen, then a little-known Canadian poet.

Complemented by previously unpublished poems, letters, and photographs, So Long, Marianne is an intimate, honest account of Marianne’s life story — from her youth in Oslo, her romance with Axel, to her life in an international artists’ colony on Hydra in the 1960s, and beyond. The subject of one of the most beautiful love songs of all time, Marianne Ihlen proves to be more than a muse to Axel and Leonard; her journey of selfdiscovery, of romance and heartache is lovingly recounted in So Long, Marianne.

Award-winning journalist Kari Hesthamar wrote this book based on lengthy conversations with Marianne Ihlen and supplemented by interviews with Leonard Cohen".







Title So Long Marianne: Μαριάννε Ιλέν-Λέναρντ Κόεν: μια ιστορία έρωτα
Author Kari Hesthamar
Translated by Krystalli Glyniadaki
Country & Year Greece 2014
Publisher Potamos, Greece
Pages 320 pages
Notes 9789605450441
paperback
Summary Greek translation of the original title.

Thanks to Sophia Koutselini for the information!





Special thanks to Marianne Ihlen and Kari Hesthamar


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