History is the favorite subject of American schoolchild Todd Bowden. With fear and trembling, he leafs through the chronicle of the bloody past, peering into the faces of nameless victims. Suddenly, the boy finds out that his neighbor is a brutal Nazi criminal who managed to escape justice. In exchange for his silence, the teenager demands that the old man reveal to him the sinister secrets of the darkest page in the history of mankind. While his peers are studying physics and mathematics, Todd is studying a terrible science that is not taught in school - the science of evil. His neighbor turns out to be a good teacher. In the quiet, frightened old man, the bloody concentration camp guard Kurt Dussander awakens again. And for the capable student the time comes for the decisive exam...

Starting from the times of the USSR, when the work was shortened, and to this day, the story “The Apt Student” is published in an incomplete version, which has very little in common with the author’s intention. The only publication in Russian containing a complete translation of the story is the book “Satan’s Piggy Bank”, published by the Platan publishing house. More information about King’s incomplete translations can be read here.

The story was scanned by heleknar.