The Reader [Paperback]

Originally published in Switzerland and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading and shame in post-war Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"

The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue and excess in any form. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent and between words and silence. --R Ellis, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A stunning examination of evil, this novel explores crime and punishment, love and guilt, dignity and degradation. (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

An exceptionally powerful novel exploring the themes of betrayal, guilt and memory against the background of the Holocaust. An international bestseller.

For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret. 'A tender, horrifying novel that shows blazingly well how the Holocaust should be dealt with in fiction. A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of a German conscience' INDEPENDENT SATURDAY MAGAZINE

Following an accidental meeting, Michael, a schoolboy in post-war Germany, begins a clandestine affair with an older woman, Hanna, but his fascination wanes as she refuses to talk about her past, effectively closing her life to him. Although frustrated by the relationship himself, Michael is shocked and feels obscurely guilty when Hannah simply disappears, leaving him with only memories and unanswered questions.

Years later, now a law student, Michael recognises Hanna as the defendant in a major war crimes trial, wilfully mishandling her defence and allowing herself to be presented as a ringleader. As two linked pasts – theirs and Germany’s – break together into the present, Michael sees that Hanna’s behaviour, then as now, conceals secrets buried deeper even than her crimes.

From this moment of recognition forward, Michael too will be pursued by memories he can neither leave behind nor move beyond.

‘achieves enormous moral force… haunting and unforgettable’
LITERARY REVIEW

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Bernhard Schlink was born in Germany is 1944. A professor of law at Humboldt University, Berlin and Cardozo Law School, New York, he is the author of the major international bestselling novel and movie The Reader, short story collection Flights of Love and several prize-winning crime novels. He lives in Berlin and New York.