The Typewriter and the Guillotine

“Endlessly compelling… a long overdue and highly enjoyable biography… Braude has delivered the prescient Flanner to us, nearly five decades after her death, at exactly the right moment.”—New York Times Book Review

"An absorbing, expertly paced work of narrative nonfiction."—Wall Street Journal

"[A] sharply honed new history...In Braude’s telling, Flanner is not straightforwardly heroic, but she is always evolving." 
 —The Atlantic

"Successful on many levels...The Typewriter and the Guillotine does an excellent job of using compelling individual stories to explain seminal historical events." —Book Page, starred review

"Part biography, part true crime narrative, this book presents something rare: a novel story about interwar Paris. Rarely does one not want to turn the page...a significant work of nonfiction."—Kirkus Reviews

"A remarkable look at the City of Light in the grow­ing shadow of Nazi Ger­many…The Typewriter and the Guillotine brings 1930s Paris to life for modern readers.”—New York Post

"[C]ompelling...[Braude] skillfully recaptures the glittering milieu in which Flanner was constantly partying with Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway or some other luminary."

—The Minnesota Star Tribune

"If you’re fascinated by World War II history, don’t miss this tale of Janet Flanner." —BookBub

"The undeniable magic of Paris, the dangers lurking in a changing world, the thrill of breaking boundaries and chasing dreams…this riveting read captures a moment in time that changed the course of history, and fiction and nonfiction readers alike will relish the front-row seat."—Amazon Book Review

"A compelling narrative"—Cipher Brief

“Thrilling, strange, and altogether wonderful, The Typewriter and the Guillotine proves that nonfiction is as dramatic, unpredictable, and compelling as any fiction. Braude’s book celebrates the great journalist Janet Flanner; evokes the darkness of the wartime world; and exposes the fascinating story of a German con man and serial killer. It’s irresistible.”—Susan Orlean, bestselling author of The Library Book and Joyride

“Impeccably researched and elegantly written, The Typewriter and the Guillotine illuminates the glamour and grit of interwar Paris through the eyes of legendary New Yorker correspondent Janet Flanner. Mark Braude transports readers from the smoky cafes of Saint-Germain to the charged streets of Versailles, where Flanner witnessed France's last public execution. Both intimate and sweeping, this remarkable narrative captures Paris at its most dazzling and dangerous, and Flanner in a moment of creative alchemy--turning history's darkness into enduring art.”—Paula McLain, bestselling author of The Paris Wife and Skylark

“In his urgent, intense new biography, Mark Braude has brought new illumination to Janet Flanner, a singular writer, whose documentation of WWII Europe - and the drumbeat of the escalating totalitarian movements that set the war in action - is acutely relevant. An engrossing, vivid, and whipsmart exploration by a historian who deeply cares for and understands his heroine.”—Lesley M.M. Blume, bestselling author of Everyone Behaves Badly and Fallout

“A double whammy coming-of-age story: of Janet Flanner, an American journalist in Paris in the 1920s; of the New Yorker, a brand-new magazine, breezy, giddy, lightweight, and attempting to appeal to the man-about-town reader. Flanner soon finds herself jumping into the deep end, without knowing how deep it is (spoiler alert: as deep as it gets—the rise of fascism, the trial of a murderer); and she convinces the New Yorker to jump right along with her. A remarkable book, highly inventive and wildly original.”—Lili Anolik, bestselling author of Didion & Babitz