Gutenberg's apprentice: a novel (First edition.)

An enthralling literary debut that evokes one of the most momentous events in history, the birth of printing in medieval Germanya story of invention, intrigue, and betrayal.Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, the wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corruption- riddled, feud-plagued Mainz to meet a most amazing man.Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a revolutionaryand, to some, blasphemousmethod of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press.

Fust is financing Gutenbergs workshop, and he orders Peter to become Gutenbergs apprentice.

Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter begins his education in the darkest art.As his skill grows, so too does his admiration for Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture: printing copies of the Holy Bible.

But when outside forces align against them, Peter finds himself torn between two father figuresthe generous Fust and the brilliant, mercurial Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to achieve his own mastery.Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways and the new, Peter and the men he admires must work together to prevail against overwhelming obstacles in a battle that will change history . . . and irrevocably transform them all.