Title: The Reader
Author: Bernard Schlink
Publisher: Vintage International
Place: Germany
Date: 1995
The Reader takes place in post-war Germany, between 1950 and
mid 1990s. Fifteen year old Michael Berg becomes ill on the way home from
school and he is helped by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers the
following spring and goes back to thank her and they become lovers. Hanna
enjoyed herself when Michael was reading to her. Despite their close bond Hanna
mysteriously disappears one day.
Eight years later, as
a law student attending a war crimes trail he sees Hanna as one of the
defendants. He found out that Hanna was an SS guar and was responsible for the
death of a group of Jewish women. The other defendants claim she is responsible
and that she wrote the report describing the event. Hanna does not deny this, although she is
leading Michael to realise that she is illiterate. Michael decides not to get involved
in the trial and Hanna is sentenced to life in prison. After his divorce,
Michael starts recording himself reading books on cassettes for Hanna but he never
visits her. She is released after eighteen years, and Michael wants to help her
find a job and place to live. On her last day in prison he visits Hanna for the
first time, and the next morning she kills herself, leaving money behind to
help Jewish women.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.