In the spring of 1946 the black American novelist, Richard Wright, presented himself at the rue de Fleurus apartment of Gertrude Stein Their meeting symbolized the passing of one generation of writers in Paris and the birth of another. This book starts with that meeting and ends with Wright's death - possibly suspicious - 14 years later. The intervening years yield a multitude of strange tales: the Coca-Cola War; the emergence of the shadowy Boris Vian; the resurrection of Samuel Beckett by a small Left Bank magazine edited by Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi; the real Story of O; what happened when the Beat Generation came to Paris. Above all, this book celebrates the prevailing spirit of freedom in those years, and the art it fostered.