Short description
Film tie-in edition of Bernhard Schlink's exceptionally powerful novel - 'A thriller, a love story and a deeply moving examination of a German conscience' [Independent on Saturday]
Long description
For 15-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 which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused. For Hanna is not all she seems. 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 is a criminal. Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make 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.
Review
Schlink's novel has a wondeful clarity of style that serves to emphasise the moral complexity of its subject matter DAILY TELEGRAPH The Reader cannot be ignored. It challenges core definitions of good and evil...The Reader brings us face to face with how little we know about the people around us -- Norman Lebrecht EVENING STANDARD A powerful book, it lingers in the mind OXFORD TIMES a profound and deeply moving examination of what drives perfectly ordinary people to do the most appalling things...hard to put down YORK PRESS A hauntingly beautiful read SUFFOLK FREE PRESS This mesmerising novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of post-war Germany WESTERN MORNING NEWS A tender, horrifying novel that shows blazingly well how the Holocaust should be dealt with in fiction MATURE TIMES