The Page Turner: A Novel - Hardcover

Leavitt, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039575285X ISBN 13: 9780395752852

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1998

Synopsis

After young pianist Paul Porterfield engages in a brief affair with aging prodigy Richard Kennington and both return to New York to pursue separate endeavors, they do not see each other again but their relationship has profound repercussions that neither had expected. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

David Leavitt's Arkansas was the surprise of his career: funny, sexy, and thematically adventurous, it was a complete break from his more traditional narratives. Now, in The Page Turner, Leavitt returns to the style and type of story that made him famous. Noted pianist Richard Kennington is a former child prodigy now entering middle age. While in Rome he meets and begins an affair with Paul Porterfield, a young man who is poised to follow in his professional footsteps. The affair is complicated by the fact that Pamela, Paul's mother, is also interested in Richard. The affair is short-lived, but the story--which might remind you of an updated version of a sophisticated 1940s Hollywood romance such as The Seventh Vail or Intermezzo--takes several startling turns when Richard, Paul, and Pamela discover the power of love and eroticism; it is more complicated then any of them imagined. Leavitt's tone, slyly serious and ironically romantic, makes The Page Turner a compelling and surprising read.

About the Author:

David Leavitt's first collection of stories, Family Dancing, was published when he was just twenty-three and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Prize. The Lost Language of Cranes was made into a BBC film, and While England Sleeps was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize. With Mark Mitchell, he coedited The Penguin Book of Short Stories, Pages Passed from Hand to Hand, and cowrote Italian Pleasures. Leavitt is a recipient of fellowships from both the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He divides his time between Italy and Florida.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 039575285X
• ISBN 13: 9780395752852
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244