The Millionaire of Love

The Millionaire of Love tells a unique story of the depth and beauty of romantic obsession between old and young men. Nevis, a sophisticated American advertising executive living in France, falls hard for Radomir, a rootless 22-year-old adrift in Europe-and thirty years his junior. What unfolds is a timeless tale of compulsion and unrequited love, of the building of idyllic romantic dreams and their inevitable destruction. Set in vivid European locales, this touching story reveals an insightful portrait of the inner workings of romantic love and undeniable passion.

Radomir, sensing an opportunity to take advantage of a situation, moves in with Nevis, accepting his hospitality yet refusing his bed. The young man is Crisp’s epitome of a "millionaire of love," loved and desired by both women and men. However, he holds little patience for the older man’s attentions. His constant rebuffs fail to dissuade the fixated Nevis, who in turn almost revels in the emotional pain he experiences from rejection. Helpless against his own feelings, Nevis must do battle with his emotions to save his dignity and any possibility for ultimate happiness.

An excerpt from The Millionaire of Love:

Nevis looked at the sulky boy walking beside him, heavy shoulders hunched forward, looking slowly downwards under his heavy brows. He seemed unaware of the evening around him, but Nevis had come to know that the unawareness often signaled being very aware and not wanting anyone to sense it. He felt an old familiar lurch inside. It was like seeing a dish falling. The crash, the breaking apart, the irrevocable thing hasn’t happened yet but cannot be avoided. Those moments when everything is still all right but where there is no road back, the smashing that changes everything cannot be avoided, the moment before death must be like that. That was the moment on the Boulevard Haussman. The falling towards the bad thing.

The Millionaire of Love reveals the inner thoughts and feelings of both young and old, the lovers and the licentious, showing that no matter how deeply we descend into inescapable passion and unrequited love, we should value all that we learn, no matter what our age.