The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink

Summary

German law professor, judge and detective novelist Bernhard Schlink has taken on the topic of the Holocaust, through the story of a man struggling to come to terms with the revealed crimes of a woman he loved passionately, then lost. What does it mean to love someone who has committed horrible atrocities, and continues to hide dark secrets? What does a new generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust?

A passionate love affair springs to life between 15-year-old Michael Berg and 40-year-old Hanna. When Hanna disappears, Michael fears he will never see her again. But he does, on trial as a Nazi war criminal. This book explores the gap between Germany's pre- and postwar generations, and between guilt and innocence, and ultimately asks what love is capable of, and what to do with remembrance of the unbearable.

The Reader is the first German novel to top the New York Times bestseller list, an Oprah book club selection, and winner of the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize. It has been translated into 37 languages.

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Praise

"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

"A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel. From the first page, [The Reader] enshares both heart and mind." — The Los Angeles Times

"A counterpointing of two stories, or a story and a history, of victim and victimizer, culpability and disavowal, indictment and extenuation. ... Bernhard Schlink has taken on a grievously formidable subject. ...We praise books that, as we say, make us think. The Reader makes us think ... about things we would rather not think about, issues which the book leaves open and we might wish to have closed one way or another." — The New York Review of Books

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