Rue de La Pompe

Guided by a deaf mute and mentored by an epistemologist, Michael careens across the city, from the Chateau de Vincennes to the Musee d'Orsay, from the sewers of Paris to the base of the Eiffel Tower, in his quest for the coin and for an answer to the question of its true nature.

Assisting, thwarting, or simply confusing him along the way is a bizarre collection of lunatic personalities including a Castilian hit man, a Zen Buddhist Swiss jeweler, a flatulent statue of Benjamin Franklin, a foul-mouthed rhinoceros, the Concierge from Hell, and an enigmatic beauty named Chione.

"Rue de la Pompe" is the first of four novels chronicling Michael Whyte's year in Paris."