Poetry. DEAD MAN & COMPANY is a puzzle book; a puzzle book in the respect that it is fraught with ambiguity and enigma, and in the respect that its pieces can be put together so as to make sense of it. Like a parlor game or a deck of cards, it has certain rules of play. Characters can move only according to their natures, and the dictates of the draw. Resembling the cast of a medieval morality play, they consist of a king, a dwarf, a dead man, and an entourage of consorts reminiscent of figures from the Tarot or from the time of the Black Plague"--From the translator's preface. Marie Redonnet was born in Paris in 1947. In 1985, after teaching for several years in a lycee, she published her first volume, a book of poetry (Le Mort & Cie). Since then, she has published five novels, a novella, a collection of short stories, and three dramatic works. The five novels have appeared in English translation from University of Nebraska Press.