Stephen King/Apt Pupil

Novella by Stephen King, originally published in Different Seasons (1982).

Wikipedia contains spoilers

Format of the story

Apt Pupil consists of 30 chapters, many (but far from all) of which are headed by a month. The story takes place over a period of about four year (från mid-1974 to mid-1978) with most of the action taking place during the first year and the last months. It is told in the third person.

The Story

Todd Bowden is thirteen and a smart kid with good grades. He and a friend rummage around in the friend's garage looking for comics. Instead Todd finds old war magazines with stories from the concentration camps and it fascinated by them. He begins to read everything he can get his hands on about the war and the camps.

One day he sees an old man on the bus that he recognizes. He goes to his house and rings the bell. The sign on the door says "Arthur Denker", but when the door opens Todd calls him "Kurt Dussander". He has recognized him as the commendant of the nazi concentration camp at Patin. At first the old man denies everything, of course, repeating that his name is Denker. As Todd gives him more and more details, however, he finally admits to being Kurt Dussander.

He finds out that Todd isn't out to expose him (although he threatens to do this if Dussander doesn't do what he wants) and he's not interested in money (his family is pretty well-off). What he wants is to hear "all the gooshy stuff" about the camps. Dussander is reluctant, but finally caves in to Todd's threats of exposure.

Film

Apt Pupil has been filmed as Apt Pupil (1998), directed by [Bryan Singer]?.