The Apprentice Lover: A Novel [Paperback]

When Alex Massolini's brother is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of Columbia University and leaves his conservative family behind for Capri to become secretary to Rupert Grant, a famous British novelist and poet who dominates the island like a latter -- day Prospero. Alex soon finds himself ensnared in a web of love affairs, friendships, and rivalries within the eccentric community that inhabits the idyllic beauty of the isolated Italian island.

The Apprentice Lover traces a young American's enchantment and disenchantment -- with his American past, his new European mentor, and the various inhabitants on an island famous for its characters.

When Alex Massolini's brother is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of Columbia University and leaves his conservative family behind for Capri to become secretary to Rupert Grant, a famous British novelist and poet who dominates the island like a latter -- day Prospero. Alex soon finds himself ensnared in a web of love affairs, friendships, and rivalries within the eccentric community that inhabits the idyllic beauty of the isolated Italian island.

The Apprentice Lovertraces a young American's enchantment and disenchantment -- with his American past, his new European mentor, and the various inhabitants on an island famous for its characters.

Delightful & a rich cast of characters & Parini does a superb job. -San Francisco Chronicle

The Apprentice Lover & has an unpretenstious charm, an appealing naivet?, coupled with an intelligence that gradually asserts itself as the narrator gains confidence &[an] amusing book about a young writers coming of age. -Washington Post Book World

[Parini] expertly navigates this multilayered narrative. -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Pleasure-filled & Parini writes lovingly and evocatively. -Los Angeles Times

Richly compelling & Parini renders the mentor-apprentice dynamic with grelóú