Apt Pupil

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King’s timeless coming-of-age novella, Apt Pupil—published in his 1982 story collection Different Seasons and made into a 1998 Tristar movie starring Ian McKellan and Brad Renfro—now available for the first time as a standalone publication.

If you don’t believe in the existence of evil, you have a lot to learn.

Todd Bowden is an apt pupil. Good grades, good family, a paper route. But he is about to meet a different kind of teacher, Mr. Dussander, and to learn all about Dussander’s dark and deadly past…a decades-old manhunt Dussander has escaped to this day. Yet Todd doesn’t want to turn his teacher in. Todd wants to know more. Much more. He is about to face his fears and learn the real meaning of power—and the seductive lure of evil.

A classic story from Stephen King, Apt Pupil reveals layers upon layers of deception—and horror—as finally there is only one left standing.

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers.?His recent work includes Billy Summers, the novella collection?If It Bleeds,?The Institute,?Elevation,?The Outsider (now an HBO television series),?Sleeping Beauties?(cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy:?End of Watch,?the short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Finders?Keepers,?Mr. Mercedes?(an Edgar Award winner?for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock), and Under the Dome. His novel?11/22/63—a Hulu original television series event—was named a?top ten book of 2011 by?The?New York Times?Book Review?and won the?Los Angeles Times?Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller, as well as the Best Hardcover Book Award from the International Thriller Writers. His epic works?The Dark Tower series,?It,?Pet Sematary, and?Doctor Sleep?are the basis for?major motion pictures, with?It?now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient?of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the?2014 National Medal of Arts, and the?2003 National Book Foundation Medal for?Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.?He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife,?novelist Tabitha King.