From walks in the Luxembourg Garden to letters describing tea with an irascible Tolstoy - Maurice Betz, Rainer Maria Rilke's French translator, enjoyed a rare intimacy with the great poet. This book, inspired by their time working together on the first French translation of Rilke's only novel, invites the reader into that friendship, offering glimpses of Rilke's creative process and the glittering cultural scene of interwar Paris.

Betz first came to Rilke as an admirer, carrying a book of his poems in his kit bag while serving as a soldier in the First World War. No other writer meant so much to him, and Rilke would come to mean even more once their fruitful partnership began, lasting until the poet's death in 1926. This elegant and poignant look at the great writer's final years, drawn from Betz's memories and the letters Rilke sent from his travels across Europe, provides a portrait of a brilliant mind, an evocation of a lost world, and a testament to an enduring friendship.