Traitor Comet

Paris more than blossomed between World War I and World War II-it was considered by many to be the cultural and artistic capital of the world. Artists and thinkers from every corner of the globe visited or moved there, interacting with each other and developing some of our most exciting modern expression.

In Traitor Comet, not even the troubled young Austrian Geoff Weidmann is immune to the city's allure. A hermit back home, he unwillingly joins his brother, Franz, and Franz's French wife in Paris after his father forces the reunion. Though Geoff remains haunted by his violent past-both the Great War and what he might have done against another man on his farm-when he meets the surrealist poets Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos, his world cracks open. Antonin holds a mirror to Geoff's experiences, and Geoff ultimately comes to learn from their similarities; Robert is jovial and irreverent, fresh air lightening Geoff's life. Both men are original, creative thinkers willing to argue against even the founder of the surrealist movement of which they are a part.

Part thrilling mystery, part coming-of-age tale, part page-turning history lesson, Traitor Comet is the first title in a historical novel series based on the real lives of avant-garde writers Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos. It is also the first book, fiction or nonfiction, to focus on their unique friendship, which ultimately led one man to save the other from the Nazis. This little-known aspect of the lives of these otherwise famous men means that author Personne, an independent journalist, historian, and researcher, has a wealth of information to continue this story-from this introduction to these men who loved free thought and action into a dramatic series about these rebels with a cause.