The Double – a novel series

Coming Out in 2023!

Before punk, before the Beats, before existentialism, and beyond Surrealism there were two visionaries, two rebels, two friends…and two tragic heroes,
Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos.
These two men should never be forgotten.

Please visit the Association Rodez Antonin Artaud for more information about Artaud’s life and work

Designing the Cover

As stated, the first book in the series, Traitor Comet, will be coming out soon. I just wanted to give an update: copyediting is done, the book is being designed, and I have to choose my cover style. Written from the point of view of a fictional friend, Traitor Comet compresses events from 1924-1927 into…

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Coming Out this Year!

For technical reasons, the first book to come out this year(!) will indeed be Traitor Comet, set from May 1926 – June 1926. I had considered combining it with book two, L’Etoile de Mer (The Starfish), set from September 1926 – May 1927, but the publisher could not bind a paperback that thick. (Be aware…

by nonpersonne

Progress!

I have decided to combine Book One: Traitor Comet and Book Two: L’Etoile de Mer, into one novel for the sake of continuity, and self-publish the whole shebang. Thanks to all my readers for sticking with me and waiting for the story of Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos to be told! This book will cover…

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Update – Publishing

I am passing these novels through a great writer’s group and am exploring self-publishing at this point. Sorry that life got in the way (I’m doing a lot of other writing, too!) but hopefully I will have an answer soon. Thank you to everyone who has visited and continued to visit this site!

by nonpersonne

Photos from my visit to Paris to write this series

The Theatre de l’Atelier, where Antonin Artaud acted as a member of Charles Dullin’s troupe
The last residents of Robert Desnos with a placard: “Here lived from 1934 to 1944 ROBERT DESNOS, French poet, arrested by the Gestapo and deported, he died because he believed in freedom, progress, and justice.”
Those rose I laid on the grave of Desnos in Montparnasse Cemetery. Desnos was cremated with a rose at Terezin after liberation.
The Select features prominently in my novel.
A coaster from this cafe once a haunt of artists and the working class
Artaud’s favorite cafe, where the waiters were so kind to him

The Double, a novel series
about Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos

Read Excerpts

i have been working on this series for 30 years and it has taken me where I did not expect to go. I never set out to write this book. Artaud and I merely shared the same concerns about language.

Explore Links

I do not intend to profit from the sacrifices of these two men. I only want the world to know about them and never forget them. Please explore this important work done by others.

Follow this blog

I’m not interested in a career or profit from this project, but only to introduce and update people about Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos. Subscribe to my site to get updated when I add new stuff (until you don’t need to subscribe anymore).

About the Author

So often have I dreamed of you So often walked, so often talked So much have I loved your shadow That there now remains nothing left of me But the shadow of your shadow always with me To be a hundred times darker than any darkness Than the shadow that crosses and shall joyously cross your living sundial. —R. Desnos

A novel, about my friends and beloved teachers who I’ve never met, Antonin Artaud and Robert Desnos.

It was Artaud who took over the book I tried to write, and it was knowing Artaud who led me to Desnos.

I am a writer, a former actress and dancer, and many other things. I have not been born yet; I am not in the world yet.

All I ask is Life. Therefore I offer this failed “spell.”

Contact

Get in Touch

artauddesnosthenovel@gmail.com

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