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Search - The Reader
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Book Description:
Already an acclaimed and best-selling work of fiction in Europe (currently being translated into fourteen different languages worldwide), 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.
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.
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Other Versions of this Book: Hardcover, Audio Cassette (Unabridged), Paperback, Hardcover
Top Member Reviews
Karen T. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I didn't know what to expect when I started this book and was about to put it away when I skipped back a few pages and found out what was to come. I couldn't put it down after that. It was difficult to have sympathy for or understand the characters at times but it was so simply written with a directness that was powerful.
Rate These Member Reviews
Tanya S. (For anyone who enjoys Oprah's Book Club - this was on her list a couple of years ago.
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. She enthralls him with her passion, but puzzles him with her odd silences. Then she inexplicably disappears.
When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student and Hanna is on trial for a hideous crime. But as he watches her refuse to defend herself, Michael gradually realizes that his former lover may be gaurding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.
This book is an Oprah's Book club book. Michael Berg, 15 years old has an affair with an older woman. She is a German lady and later disappears. He becomes a law student and later finds her on trial for murder.