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‘A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of a German conscience’ [Independent on Saturday]
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.
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.
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Reviews
A hauntingly beautiful read
Schlink's extraordinary novel The Reader is a compelling meditation on the connections between Germany's past and its present, dramatised with extreme emotional intelligence as the story of a relationship between the narrator and an older woman. It has won deserved praise across Europe for the tact and power with which it handles its material, both erotic and philosophical
Haunting and unforgettable
This mesmerising novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of post-war Germany
Leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart . . . a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is the German novel I have been waiting for: it objectifies the Holocaust and legitimately makes all mankind responsible
[Schlink] explores the conflict between generations, wrestling with collective guilt and individual motivation. He examines the nature if understanding and tests the limits of forgiveness. He does these things with honesty, restraint and a moral precision both unsettling and rare. The result is as compelling as any thriller
A tender, horrifying novel that shows blazingly well how the Holocaust should be dealt with in fiction
a profound and deeply moving examination of what drives perfectly ordinary people to do the most appalling things...hard to put down
A powerful book, it lingers in the mind
For generations to come, people will be reading and marvelling over Bernhard Schlink's The Reader
Deeply moving, sensitive enough to make me wince, a Holocaust novel, but light years away from the common run
The Reader cannot be ignored. It challenges core definitions of good and evil...The Reader brings us face to face with how little we know about the people around us
Schlink's novel has a wondeful clarity of style that serves to emphasise the moral complexity of its subject matter
