num_pages: 522
description: 
  A sly, witty, and beautifully orchestrated tale about the difficulty of being good
Edward Baltram is overwhelmed with guilt. His nasty little prank has gone horribly wrong: he has fed his closest friend a sandwich laced with a hallucinogenic drug and the young man has fallen out of a window to his death. Consumed with guilt, Edward experiences a debilitating crisis of conscience. While Edward torments himself for not being good, his stepbrother, Stuart, a brilliant mathematics student, quits his promising scholastic career to live like a monk, devoting himself to the difficult task of becoming good. As Stuart seeks salvation, Edward searches for redemption through a reunion with his famous father, the reclusive painter Jesse Baltram. Funny and compelling, The Good Apprentice, first published in 1986*, is at once a supremely sophisticated entertainment and an inquiry into the spiritual crises that afflict the modern world.*First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin Inc. 1986
language: English
title: The Good Apprentice
titlecomplete: The Good Apprentice
genres: Classics, British Literature, Philosophy, Female Authors, Novels, 20th Century, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 1580
places: England
awards: awardedAt: 473414400000
name: Booker Prize
publisher: Penguin Books