The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
The jacket of the edition I read of The Reader sums up the plot as follows: "When fifteen-year-old Michael Berg falls ill on his way home from school he is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover, enthralling him with her passion, but puzzling him with her cold silences. Then she disappears. Michael next sees Hanna when she is on trial for a hideous crime."
The trial occurs several years after the disappearance, and the "hideous crime" is that of having worked as a concentration camp guard during WWII, and having committed acts of brutality. Michael is forced to confront the dreadful past of a person he loved--and still loves--and he thus becomes representative of the generation of Germans growing up after the war who must somehow deal with the Nazi past. He knows that, but "How could it be a comfort that the pain I went through because of my love for Hanna was, in a way, the fate of my generation, a German fate, and that it was only more difficult for me to evade, more difficult for me to manage than for others."
But although the dilemma of the post-war generation in Germany is a backdrop for the novel and the book does explore this theme, Michael and Hanna are not primarily to be seen as symbolic or representative of generational conflict. For the most part, the book is very personal: it concentrates on Michael's individual struggle: " . . . what other people in my social environment had done, and their guilt, were in any case a lot less bad than what Hanna had done. I had to point at Hanna. But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. Not only had I loved her, I had chosen her." It is, in the end, a love story.
The Reader was written in German and the translation I read is by Carol Brown Janeway. The English version reads very smoothly: the writing is straightforward, direct, yet subtle. I highly recommend this book.
The trial occurs several years after the disappearance, and the "hideous crime" is that of having worked as a concentration camp guard during WWII, and having committed acts of brutality. Michael is forced to confront the dreadful past of a person he loved--and still loves--and he thus becomes representative of the generation of Germans growing up after the war who must somehow deal with the Nazi past. He knows that, but "How could it be a comfort that the pain I went through because of my love for Hanna was, in a way, the fate of my generation, a German fate, and that it was only more difficult for me to evade, more difficult for me to manage than for others."
But although the dilemma of the post-war generation in Germany is a backdrop for the novel and the book does explore this theme, Michael and Hanna are not primarily to be seen as symbolic or representative of generational conflict. For the most part, the book is very personal: it concentrates on Michael's individual struggle: " . . . what other people in my social environment had done, and their guilt, were in any case a lot less bad than what Hanna had done. I had to point at Hanna. But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. Not only had I loved her, I had chosen her." It is, in the end, a love story.
The Reader was written in German and the translation I read is by Carol Brown Janeway. The English version reads very smoothly: the writing is straightforward, direct, yet subtle. I highly recommend this book.