The Philosopher's Apprentice (P.S.) - Softcover

Morrow, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061351458 ISBN 13: 9780061351457

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2009

Synopsis

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?

About this title

Review:

"[James Morrow] is an original-stylistically ingenious, savagely funny, always unpredictable." -- Philadelphia Inquirer

"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."--Nick Gevers, Locus

"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."--Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

"[James Morrow] is an original--stylistically ingenious, savagely funny, always unpredictable."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Morrow addresses controversial topics without being heavy-handed, and infuses the narrative with a wit that pragmatists and idealists alike will appreciate. A-"--Entertainment Weekly

"Morrow's world is one where ideas matter so much they come lurching to life as intellectual Frankenstein creatures. In The Philosopher's Apprentice, they are wickedly hilarious - and then they can break our hearts and scare us silly."--Denver Post

"[I]nventive, entertaining . . . fantastic images and ideas . . . Morrow's inventiveness is beguiling, as are his delight in Western philosophy and his concern for the sorry state of the world."--New York Times Book Review

"[A] tumultuous take on humanity, philosophy and ethics that is as hilarious as it is outlandish . .. [a] wildly ambitious morality play, a shrewd amalgamation of the sacred and the profane. Tips its hat with style to Mary Shelley and George Bernard Shaw."--Kirkus Reviews

"Morrow has produced an exemplary novel, one that explores a question central to the human understanding of self...THE PHILOSOPHER'S APPRENTICE is thought experiment as heartbreaking drama-this is what science fiction at its best does."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch on THE PHILOSOPHER'S APPRENTICE

"One of America's premier comic novelists and satirists. . . . Morrow is long overdue for a mainstream audience."--Denver Post

Book Description:

A cross between LOST, Jurassic Park and The Island of Dr Moreau! A philosopher is given the task of teaching a mysterious child, but does not foresee the consequences for his protegee...

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0061351458
• ISBN 13: 9780061351457
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448