The Reader

Author: Bernhard Schlink

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $23.95 AUD
  • : 9780375707971
  • : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • : Vintage Books
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  • : 0.249
  • : March 1999
  • : 210mm X 133mm X 15mm
  • : United States
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Bernhard Schlink
  • : Vintage International Ser.
  • : Paperback
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  • : English
  • : 833.914
  • : very good
  • :
  • : 218
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Barcode 9780375707971
9780375707971

Description

"The Reader" is both a literary surprise and a moral challenge: a riveting, provocative, and deeply moving novel about a young boy's erotic awakening in a passionate, clandestine love affair with an older woman, and what happens to them both when the secrets in her past are revealed. Fifteen-year-old Michael Berg becomes ill on the way home from school. A woman takes care of him. Later, the boy arrives at her home with a bunch of flowers to thank her. And then comes back again. Hanna is the first woman he has ever desired. But there is something slightly off-key about her. His questions about her family and her life go unanswered. One day Hanna simply disappears. Michael's life goes on, but he can't forget her. 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 so passionately is a criminal. Much about her behavior during the trial makes no 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. As the past erupts into the present  both Michael's past with Hanna, and the past of Germany itself  Michael must accept that he will never be free of either of them.

Awards

Shortlisted for Heathrow Travel Product Award: Travel Read, Fiction 2009.

Author description

Bernhard Schlink was born in Germany in 1944. A professor of law at the University of Berlin and a practicing judge, he is also the author of several prize-winning crime novels. He lives in Bonn and Berlin.