| Product Summary | | Format: Paperback | | ISBN: 9780307454898 | | Publisher: Vintage Books USA | | Publish Date: 11/25/2008 | | Buy.com Sku: 207669086 | | Item#: | | Dimensions (in Inches) 8.25H x 5.25L x 0.75T | | Pages: 224 |
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| | | | "When I was fifteen, I got hepatitis..." (from the first line) Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.
Annotation:
A teenage boy named Michael is befriended by Hanna, a mysterious older married woman. Years later as a law student, he attends a criminal trial in which Hanna stands accused. What emerges is not only Hanna's terrible crime, but an even more dire secret that involves Michael himself. A New York Times Notable Book for 1997.
| PraiseIndependent on Sunday (London)
"The best novel I read this year....An unforgettable short tale about love, horror and mercy in Germany before and after 1945. Word of mouth about this novel ran all over Europe before the publicity machine caught up." - Neil AschersonNew York Times Book Review
"Schlink's daring fusion of 19th-century post-romantic, post-fairy-tale models with the awful history of the 20th-century makes for a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work." - Suzanne Ruta 07/27/1997 New York Times
"Schlink tells this story with marvellous directness and simplicity, his writing stripped bare of any of the standard gimmicks of dramatization." - Richard Bernstein 08/20/1997 Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Part of the artistry of this novel lies in its limpid, understated realism, the tangible details....The integrity of THE READER lies with the narrator's refusal to assign blame according to initial, obvious interpretation; indeed, as the novel develops, its theme becomes the always-shifting landscape of guilt and shame." - Kai Maristed 08/31/1997 |
| Awards |
Boston Book Review Award (1998) |  | won, Fisk Fiction Prize | |
International Impac Dublin Literary Award (1999) |  | nominated, Novel | | |
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