The Reader

By: Bernhard Schlink

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Paperback | 11 November 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
240 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.8 x 13.0 x 1.9

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For fifteen-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. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany''s Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime.

As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust?

The Reader is an international bestseller and a true modern classic, examining the gap between Germany''s pre- and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence.

Industry Reviews

Deeply moving, sensitive enough to make me wince, a Holocaust novel, but light years away from the common run - Sunday Telegraph

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 - Independent

Leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart . . . a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work - New York Times

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is the German novel I have been waiting for: it objectifies the Holocaust and legitimately makes all mankind responsible - Observer

Haunting and unforgettable - Literary Review

[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 - The Times

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