The Collaborator

A National Book Award Finalist A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist On February 6, 1945, Robert Brasillach was executed for treason by a French firing squad. He was a writer of some distinctiona prolific novelist and a keen literary critic. He was also a dedicated anti-Semite, an acerbic opponent of French democracy, and editor in chief of the fascist weeklyJe Suis Partout, in whose pages he regularly printed wartime denunciations of Jews and resistance activists. Was Brasillach in fact guilty of treason? Was he condemned for his denunciations of the resistance, or singled out as a suspected homosexual? Was it right that he was executed when others, who were directly responsible for the murder of thousands, were set free? Kaplan's meticulous reconstruction of Brasillach's life and trial skirts none of these ethical subtleties: a detective story, a cautionary tale, and a meditation on the disturbing workings of justice and memory,The Collaboratorwill stand as the definitive account of Brasillach's crime and punishment.

Alice Kaplan is a professor of Romance Studies and Literature at Duke University. She is also the author of French Lessons: A Memoir, published by the University of Chicago Press.