Land of Last Chances: A Novel

by Joan Cohen

Overview

Jeanne Bridgeton, an unmarried executive in her late forties, discovers life doesn’t begin and end on a spreadsheet when her expected menopause instead becomes an unexpected pregnancy. Though accomplished at managing risk professionally, Jeanne realizes her skills don’t extend to her personal life, where she has allowed the professional and the personal to become intertwined. She’s not even sure which of two men in her life is the father. Worse yet, a previously undisclosed family secret reveals that she may carry a rare hereditary gene for early-onset Alzheimer’s—and it’s too late to get genetic tests. This leaves Jeanne to cope with her intense fear of risk without the aid of the mountain of data she’s accustomed to relying upon. Wrestling with the question of whether her own needs, or those of her child, should prevail takes Jeanne on an intensely emotional journey—one that ultimately leads to growth and enlightenment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631526008
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	08/13/2019
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Originally from Mount Vernon, New York, Joan Cohen received her BA from Cornell University and her MBA from New York University. Her career in sales and marketing at technology companies led to the executive level, and after retirement she returned to school for an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the author of the novel Land of Last Chances, published in 2019. She now resides in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires, with her husband and latest canine addition.

Editorial Reviews

09/23/2019

Cohen’s satisfying, fast-paced debut follows a 48-year-old businesswoman who learns she’s pregnant. Throughout her life, Jeanne Bridgeton had been convinced by her recently deceased mother that a woman must prioritize a successful career above bearing children. Jeanne followed that advice, moving up the corporate ladder at a technology business called Salientific until reaching the position of marketing v-p. She thought she had already entered menopause, but then she finds out she’s pregnant, and the father is either Vince, a key investor in Salientific, or Salientific’s CEO, Jake, with whom she had a post-party one-night stand. These professional indiscretions and questions of paternity complicate matters as Jeanne moves through the opening months of her pregnancy. Further complicating things is her discovery of her mother’s keepsake box, which reveals that her father had died from early-onset Alzheimer’s. Because both Jeanne and her baby may also carry the gene, she considers abortion. Jeanne endures a number of additional ordeals, including protecting Jake, who has PTSD, against a corporate mutiny, and caring for her lovable but dying dog, Bricklin, who’s her best friend and only family. Though overwhelming with its onslaught of tribulations, the novel sustains its momentum and holds readers’ attention with capable prose and emotional depth. This is a worthwhile debut about overcoming midlife obstacles. (BookLife)

Publishers Weekly

2020 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in Women’s Fiction
“Middle-aged corporate women have it rough in fiction. We’re bitter, uncompromising, lonely, regretful—and always barren. Which is why it was so refreshing to read Land of Last Chances by Joan Cohen. By introducing a real-life woman facing real-world choices, Cohen subverts these familiar stereotypes and offers a brand new narrative. Finally! A thinking, feeling woman we can all root for.”
— Jillian Medoff, bestselling author of This Could Hurt

“Joan Cohen’s remarkable first novel is impossible to put down. Land of Last Chances is fiction, but the heroic actions of a business woman in her forties seem very real. While pregnant, she discovers a potential genetic predisposition to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The book takes you through the difficult decisions she has to make and educates you on our latest understanding of early-onset and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. A must-read genetic thriller intertwined with high-level business decisions at her workplace, all happening in the Boston area, the world center of advanced medicine and biotechnology.”
—Carmela R. Abraham, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry, Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Boston University School of Medicine

“Cohen offers an adeptly written genetic detective story in this novel. In Jeanne, she creates a sympathetic and multidimensional character. . . An artfully crafted portrayal of a woman who learns about herself as she weighs an unexpected choice.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“In this deeply moving and astutely observed novel, one woman's harrowing confrontation with her family's genetic history offers a wise and bracingly modern contemplation of an ancient question: does our history determine our future? A vital new entry into the burgeoning literature of Alzheimer's fiction, Land of Last Chances is a wise, hopeful, and enormously gripping debut.”
—Stefan Merrill Block, best-selling author of The Story of Forgetting, The Storm at the Door, and Oliver Loving

“Cohen stuffs her novel with thought-provoking scenarios and dramatic events . . . this midlife melodrama will be appreciated by fans of issue-driven relationship fiction.”
—Booklist

“Cohen’s satisfying, fast-paced debut . . . sustains its momentum and holds readers’ attention with capable prose and emotional depth.”
—BookLife

From the Publisher

2019-07-08
A midlife pregnancy triggers an executive decision in this debut drama.

Marketing professional Jeanne Bridgeton is a vice president at Salientific and has connections to its shot-callers. However, she doesn't yet have what she's always wanted: a chief officer title. She also finds herself having to make a choice that could have major consequences—not just for her, but also for other key characters in the story. She's pregnant, and she's debating whether she should get an abortion. At first, she ponders the question as dispassionately as she would a budget-line item—until her doctor tells her that, because she's 48, this could be her last opportunity to give birth. She never wanted to have a child before, but the finality of the decision causes her to vacillate almost daily until her state's 24-week legal abortion limit. She knows that the father is either Vince—a major investor in Salientific and her boyfriend of a year—or Jake, the company's troubled CEO, with whom she had a one-night stand. Her deepest concern, however, isn't paternity, as marriage is not in her DNA. Instead, she's anxious about the risk of the baby having developmental challenges, and whether gambling on motherhood would be irresponsible. Another wild card also consumes her: Did her father die from early-onset Alzheimer's disease? If so, would Jeanne's child be at risk of inheriting the disease—or of becoming an orphan at a young age? Cohen offers an adeptly written genetic detective story in this novel. In Jeanne, she creates a sympathetic and multidimensional character that avoids outdated stereotypes that one often sees in portrayals of women executives. Readers meet a tough corporate player in the early chapters, but the author develops many other facets of the character over the course of the book, as when she must confront the possibility that her mother, now deceased, lied to her about her father's condition. The central choice of the novel, which may polarize readers, effectively deals with extremely relevant issues.

An artfully crafted portrayal of a woman who learns about herself as she weighs an unexpected choice.

Kirkus Reviews