The Page Turner: A Novel

David Leavitt

Jul 2012 · HarperCollins

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An ambitious young musician captures the attention of a world-class virtuoso in this novel of love and disillusionment that “shimmers with magical talent” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times).

At eighteen, Paul Porterfield’s dream is to play the piano at the world’s great concert halls, so it is with great pride that he takes a position turning pages for his idol, Richard Kennington, a former piano prodigy on the cusp of middle age. It is a rare opportunity to watch the master at work. And Richard certainly takes notice of his handsome, young protégé.

When they encounter each other again in Rome, a love affair quickly blossoms—one that is complicated when Paul’s mother misconstrues Richard’s lavish attention. Only later, when their separate paths take them both to New York, with Paul and Richard come to realize how their brief entanglement will change the course of both their lives. By turns comic and heartbreaking, shrewd and intimate, The Page Turner testifies not only to the tenacity of the human spirit but to the resiliency of the human heart.

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David Leavitt's first collection of stories, "Family Dancing," was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award & the PEN/Faulkner Prize. "The Lost Language of Cranes" was made into a BBC film, & "While England Sleeps" was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize. Leavitt is also the author of "Equal Affections," "A Place I've Never Been," "Arkansas," & "The Page Turner." With Mark Mitchell, he coedited "The Penguin Book of Short Stories" & "The Pages Passed from Hand to Hand" & cowrote "Italian Pleasures." He is recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation & the National Endowment for the Arts. He divides his time between Italy and Florida.