The Apprentice Lover by Jay Parini

When Alex Massolini's brother is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of Columbia University and leaves his conservative family behind for Capri to become secretary to Rupert Grant, a famous British novelist and poet who dominates the island like a latter -- day Prospero. Alex soon finds himself ensnared in a web of love affairs, friendships, and rivalries within the eccentric community that inhabits the idyllic beauty of the isolated Italian island.The Apprentice Lover traces a young American's enchantment and disenchantment -- with his American past, his new European mentor, and the various inhabitants on an island famous for its characters.

When Alex Massolini's brother is killed in Vietnam, he drops out of school to live in Capri and serve as secretary to world-famous writer Rupert Grant. Told with wry humor in an elegant prose style, "The Apprentice Lover" is a remarkable piece of fiction that includes appearances by such colorful literary figures as Graham Greene and W.H. Auden.