A brilliant philosopher with a talent for self-destruction, Mason Ambrose gratefully accepts an offer no starving ethicist could refuse. He must travel to a private tropical island and tutor Londa Sabacthani, a beautiful, brilliant adolescent who has lost both her memory and her moral sense in a freak accident. Londa's soul is an empty vessel—and Mason's job will be to fill it.
But all is not as it seems on Isla de Sangre. Londa's reclusive mother is secretly sheltering a second child whose conscience is a blank slate. Even as the mystery deepens, Mason confronts a frightening question: What will happen when Londa, her head crammed with lofty ideals and her bank account filled to bursting, ventures out to remake our fallen world in her own image?
James Morrow is the author of nine previous novels, including The Last Witchfinder. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania.
What People are Saying About This
Nick Gevers
“This novel [is] one of Morrow’s best . . . the creative exuberances of THE PHILOSOPHER’S APPRENTICE are easily justified by the wisdom they support. For a wise novel, then, wittier and better proportioned than most of its predecessors, due praise.”
Gary K. Wolfe
“Morrow is a good as anybody at dramatizing the notion that ideas can both kill us and save us, and THE PHILOSOPHER’S APPRENTICE may well offer about as many provocative ideas per chapter as we’ll see in any novel this year.”
Maureen Corrigan
“[A] hyperkinetic mishmash of horror story, sci-fi yarn, Renaissance allegory, Greek myth and modern morality tale…rollicking…ingenious…it’s the fiction equivalent of a roller coaster ride, where readers are meant to hold on tight and enjoy the giddy thrills of an over-the-top and overeducated plot.”