The Patron (Polish original title Patron)
Rebis Publishing House, 2003
Copyright info: All rights belong to the author

A “Faustian” novel, depicted as a novel-within-a-novel. Julian Rotas, a young journalist and Warsaw resident, has just finished a novel about Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s great contemporary, literary rival who was also young Will’s tutor. With growing desperation, Rotas tries to find a publisher for his book but his efforts only reap rejection letters. Rotas’s circumstances change dramatically when he meets Henryk Stockenhausen, a renowned “patron of the artists” and Public Relations specialist. By a twist of fortune, Julian Rotas finds a willing publisher, meets a woman of his dreams, and is honored with his country’s most prestigious literary award. As in Kit Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Rotas like Faust finds that nothing comes without a price.