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Description
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • 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. "A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel." —Los Angeles Times 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. Read more
Publisher : Vintage
Publication date : January 1, 1997
Edition : 1st
Language : English
Print length : 218 pages
ISBN-10 : 1
ISBN-13 : 71
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 5.08 x 0.52 x 7.92 inches
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Paperback
This is one of the shortest, easiest reads I have ever encountered, yet it manages in those few short pages to wretch from your soul some of the heaviest emotions imaginable. `The Reader' is one of those novels that moves you, and one that never leaves. The story follows young Michael Berg as he starts an illicit affair with an older woman at the ripe old age of fifteen. Hanna is different from anyone he has ever known. She is beautiful and illusive and guarded, but all of these facets of her make her all the more intriguing to Michael. Hanna is drawn to Michael and it becomes apparent that she needs him almost as much as he believes he needs her. They know very little about one another but the love between them continues to grow stronger as they bond over passion, both for each other and for the printed page. Then one day Hanna is gone, and Michael fears he will never see her again. A few years later though, Michael does see Hanna again, but the circumstances surrounding their reunion are less than desirable. Soon Michael is faced with a new perception of his one-time lover and as the years pass his feelings for her and his feelings towards his own actions begin to twist and turn and infect his very being. The one thing that touches me so deeply about `The Reader' is the way the novel slowly unravels and creeps up on you until you're crying uncontrollably and you aren't really aware why until moments later. Yes, there is a subtle calm surrounding the words recorded in Bernhard Schlick's tragic tale of love and loss and that calm makes for one of the most devastating yet honest reads I have experienced in a long time. The novel raises questions of guilt and consequence, of forgiveness and understanding, of loneliness and desperation. `The Reader' brilliantly weaves a breathtaking web of circumstance that permeates each and every page, each and ever word, and takes the reader to a whole new level of emotional understanding. As the final moments are revealed to the reader and he is faced with the same feelings that Michael is battling we are forced to try and comprehend what he must be feeling, and we thus find ourselves ravaged of our emotions as we lay bare and broken on the floor. `The Reader' brought me to tears as I connected Michael and Hanna's story to one of my own and I saw how my actions may have inadvertently caused harm to someone I genuinely care about. That is the last thing that ran through my mind as I closed the novel, and it is the first thing I ponder whenever this novel comes up among friends. `The Reader' causes us to take a step back and weight out our actions and our interactions with others because everything we do has an effect, positive or negative, on the ones we love.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2008 by Andrew Ellington
When he was 15, and growing up in Germany, Michael Berg contracted hepatitis. One day, on the way home from school he vomited on the front stoop of an apartment building. The lady who cleaned up the mess was Hanna Schmitz. It was her apartment. The next time he saw her, Michael brought Hanna flowers, she asked him to bring up some coal, which he dutifully did. By the time Michael had finished delivering the coal to Hanna, he was covered in soot. Hanna told him to go take a shower. By the time he had finished, Hanna was standing behind him, naked. And so began a summer long love affair between Michael a 15 year old high school student and Hanna, a 36 year old streetcar operator. The lovemakeing became very ritualistic, always involving bathing, but then a new element was added. Hanna asked Michael to read to her, at first Homer's The Odyssey, and then other classics from literature. And so, every day after school, Michael would go to Hanna's house, make love to her and then read to her. But as the weeks grew to months, tensions appeared. Hanna wanted to be the dominant person in the relationship, and that bothered Michael. Whenever they argued, which was happening more frequently, Michael was the one who always gave in and apologized. At the same time Michael was becoming more popular with girls his own age in school, and so consequently, he became later and later for his meetings with Hanna. As Michael was beginning to feel guilty for withdrawing from Hanna, Hanna broke off the relationship, and just as suddenly as it had begun, the relationship was over. Michael goes on with his life, finishing high school and going to college, where he attended a seminar on the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. He gets to witness a German trial of Nazi prison guards and their victims. To his shock and surprise, one of the Nazi guards being put on trial was Hanna Schmitz. Hanna was accused of barricading a church door under Nazi bombardment. The church contained many Jewish prisoners that were to be sent to Auschwitz. Hanna was also accused of writing the report that detailed the atrocity. Hanna was made the ringleader, but really she was the scapegoat, as the other defendants tried to gain leniency. By now, Michael realizes that Hanna could not have written the report, as he knew she could not read or write, that's why she had him read to her. Hannah wasn't about to admit that she was illiterate, so she was silent as she was accused of these war crimes. Would Michael step in and tell the judge what he knew about Hanna's illiteracy, and spare her from a death sentence? Read the Reader and find out. I recommend this book, but it's a qualified recommendation. It is truly a riveting story and I wanted to read the book because the movie did not go into the level of detail that I wanted, but I soon became frustrated with Schlink's writing style, because I felt in spots where he needed to be more explicit, he was purposefully vague. The author also likes to spring surprises on the reader, for example I thought the ending would be anticlimactic, but it was quite shocking, because in the last few pages of the book, there is a twist. I didn't particularly like the twist it came on too suddenly and unexpectedly. There was also times where he seemed to be assuaging the German collective guilt over Nazi Germany a bit too much. All of these factors detracted from a very good narrative. It's still a good book, but the story drags in places where it shouldn't. For more book reviews, check out my blog [email protected]
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Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2013 by ckdexterhaven
Barely a week ago I saw the movie of The Reader. As the child of Holocaust survivors, I make it a point to read what is written on the subject and to see films and TV programs that address it. I was more than disappointed in the film -- I was troubled by the mixed messages it seemed to send about individual German's culpability in the horrow of the Holocaust. The film seemed to be saying that Hanna, the central character in the film, had a secret -- that she was illiterate -- that was somehow more shameful to her than her actions as a concentration camp guard and that somehow this was understandable. I think the mere fact that Hanna is played by Kate Winslet, who is such a powerful screen presence, causes this almost sympathetic reaction. I felt the audience was being invited to pity her, and this bothered me immensely. I had some interesting discussions with friends about the film, many of whom disagreed with my point of view. I decided I needed to know more and chose to read the novel. What a revelation. The novel is everything the film is not. I was immediately drawn into the spare, unadorned prose, entirely depicting Michael's first-person memories and questioning thoughts,and which moved along at a furious pace that kept me glued to the page (or screen, as I was reading on the Kindle). In the novel, Michael grapples with big questions of love and dependency, guilt and obligation,knowledge and denial, forgiveness and absolution. The novel makes clear that the love story between Michael and Hanna is really a metaphor for the effort of the post-war generation in Germany to grapple with the horrors perpetrated by the Third Reich and the role that their parent's generation played in those horrors. Should the younger generation try to understand their elders? Should they stop loving those that are revealed to have been complicit? Are they obligated to make amends to the victims? Should they forgive? Should they continue to assume the guilt of their parents? Should they forget or remember? None of these are easy questions, and they are certainly not resolved in the novel. But through Michael's unflinching telling of his story, we are given glimpses into how a generation must have felt to have to deal with knowledge so painful and to wonder if what they would have done. Those who gave the book one star reviews and complained about lack of character development and too many unanswered questions posed by the narrator are missing the point of the novel. These are first-person memories designed to help the person sharing them come to terms with his past and who he is. It is about healing yourself. In that it is akin to a memoir, not a character study. If you're looking for historic explanation and poetic descriptions of people, places, and events, this is not the book for you. If you want an honest exploration of what it means to look evil in the face and come to some sort of understanding of your role in abetting it or exonerating it, you will be enriched by reading "The Reader."
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Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2009 by S. Kessler
Format: Kindle
This is an interesting novel, that explores the collective shame and guilt of second generation adult children, living amongst those (Their parents's generation) who either directly or indirectly participated in the Nazification of Germany and the crimes committed under that regime. Told initially through the eyes of a 15 year old boy, who goes on to study law at University, but is forced to confront his feelings about a love affair he had with an older woman, who happened to also be a former guard in a concentration camp. I rarely read a book after seeing the movie, but decided to give this one a go-- believing that perhaps it would delve deeper into emotions that the movie didn't. Actually the movie was better. This book is told first person, but as a recounting or "after the fact" retelling of a story. That style in my opinion was a mistake. It is kind of like having someone tell you about a dream they had, you are not pulled into the story in a satisfying way.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2013 by Karl Daniels
Format: Paperback
I was first introduced to this work by a Danish friend who is a voracious reader, shortly after the book was first published in 1995. He loaned me his copy. I had never heard of Bernhard Schlink before. I can remember thinking what a brilliant, well written novel it is. And for a while, it would remain in a quirky European "niche" of great modern novels relatively few Americans have heard of. Then Oprah Winfrey made this a selection for her book club. I sing hosannas in her praise, because such outstanding literature deserves much wider readership. After two decades I decided to give it a re-read, and found it just as impressive, the second time around. The novel works well along several different dimensions. There is the love story. Or is it an obsession? Or is it just lust that lasts a lifetime? The narrator is Michael Berg, age 15 when the novel commences. It is the fulfillment of every adolescent boy's dream. Serendipity leads him into a love affair with a 36 year old woman, Hanna Schmitz. The year is around 1959. Schlink describes the love scenes with great skill... with just a sufficient amount of detail... to, er, ah, place the reader in the scene. I had to struggle with whether or not Schlink attributed too much maturity to a 15 year old. As Leonard Cohen once proclaimed: "I never met a woman until I was 65; before then I only saw these miracles before me." Yet young Berg seemed to realize that the eroticism was not in some body part or piece of clothing, but in the manner in which she held herself, and conveyed her invitation to him. She managed to "imprint" herself upon him - intentionally or not - the question would haunt him... and he would carry various images of her throughout his life. Some of the images, naturally were erotic in nature, others were how her skirt billowed out as she rode the bike in the countryside. Sad to say, the "reality check" is, at least in America, somehow, today, all of this would be illegal. Hanna Schmitz is illiterate. And she hides it. She goes to great lengths to hide it. It takes Berg a considerable period of time to figure this out due to her clever dissimulation. Schlink provides the clues for the reader, who, as intended, figures it out before Berg does. One just does not expect someone in the Western world to be illiterate. This aspect of the novel particularly resonated, because I have literally, as it were, "been there." I still vividly remember the moment that I realized that the lieutenant could not read a map, and it was a moment that he desperately needed to be able to read the map... but unlike Hanna, he admitted it to me... and thus, under "other duties as assigned," I became "The Reader" for him, just like Michael Berg. Schmitz was of that certain age that ensured her participation in the Second World War, as a German, with a role in the Holocaust. She is being tried for that role. In many ways she does not understand the process - legal or political. And at one point in the trial she asks the judge the subject question: "I mean... so what would you have done?" Schlink ensures that the reader considers this a reasonable question, while at the same time pointing out that in the "legal system" a defendant is not permitted to ask a judge such a question. Meanwhile, Berg himself, a much older Berg, who is in law school, struggles with the dilemma of trying to balance condemnation with understanding. The German people, "of a certain age," have spent much time trying to conceal their involvement with the evils of their participation in that war, while only a few have been willing to confront it. As Schlink points out, there is a major division within German society itself between those of that certain age, and their children. There remains that "there but for fortunate go I" aspect of a certain time and place. And then there is the matter of that aforementioned lieutenant, and the evils of another war. The German people have paid out reparations, in an effort of partial atonement. Can we as Americans say the same? But that is another book... as for Schlink's, 6-stars.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2015 by John P. Jones III
Format: Kindle
The book is so well written, however I did not like the characters I did not like the storyline and yet I kept reading. His thought process is very complex and there is much to think about even though I want to say I do not like this book, I continued to read. Not quite sure what that says either about me or the writing or the subject matter.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2026 by complsv
Format: Paperback
What informs our decisions? Lust? Fear? Shame? To what end? I generally think “thought provoking” is a weaselly phrase, but this book asks without asking:what would you do? The first part is erotic, a 15 year old enters into a sexual and emotional relationship with a woman 20 years his senior. Then she disappears. Then she reappears. What is his responsibility?
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Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2026 by M. Browning
Format: Kindle
This is one of those books I truly enjoyed reading. It has become one of my favorite books. I love the writing style. Michael (the main character) takes you on a journey with his story. I felt every emotion, every frustration and his anger towards society. Michael was a brilliant man whose only weakness was a woman 19 years his senior. Michael is very young, 15, when he starts to have a relationship with Hanna. I understand a lot of people considered Hanna to be a pedophile. If the role was reversed and Michael was a young girl and Hanna was an older man, the man would have been considered a sexual predator. But, reading through the book, you don't get that from Hanna. I felt Michael's love for her surpassed any obstacle that tried to keep them apart. I assumed if Hanna did not die, Michael would have still loved her and given her the world. Age did not matter in this book. Reading through Michael's view point, you as the reader did not care that there is a huge gap in age. You wanted Michael to find peace and he would never find peace if Hanna was not in his life. Hanna was Michael's everything and he couldn't understand why; maybe it’s because Hanna kept Michael alive. Michael had something to live for. He was constantly sick. I think Michael was much stronger then Hanna. She was weak and she did not know how to open up. My heart broke when Michael entered Hanna's cell and found a picture of him graduating and he couldn't breathe, all he wanted to do was cry. "As she spoke, I had continued to kneel, my eyes on the pictures and notes, fighting back tears". I got the same emotions when (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow) Professor Snape found one of Lillian's (Harry Potter's mom) letter and her handwriting and Professor Snape broke down in the room and started weeping. At that moment you felt the unconditional love Professor Snape had for Lillian. What kept Professor Snape alive was Lillian) what kept Michael going throughout his life were Hanna and her memories. Michael had unconditional love for Hanna and I think she knew that; she did not want to burden him with her illiteracy. “She learned to read with you. She borrowed the books you read on tape out of the library, and followed what she heard, word by word and sentence by sentence. I fell in love with this book from beginning to the end.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017 by Beer'sheba