The Reader: 20th Anniversary Edition

Description

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 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 another deep secret.

BERNHARD SCHLINK was born in Germany in 1944. A professor emeritus of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, and Cardozo Law School, New York, he is the author of the internationally bestselling novels THE READER, which became an Oscar-winning film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and THE WOMAN ON THE STAIRS. His latest novel, OLGA, was a #1 international bestseller. He lives in Berlin and New York.

'For generations to come, people will be reading and marvelling over Bernhard Schlink's THE READER' - EVENING STANDARD A sensitive, daring, deeply moving book about the tragic results of fear and the redemptive power of understanding Readers of the book - thousands, one hopes - will understand the nature of atonement when they have finished reading it - DAILY TELEGRAPH Haunting and unforgettable - LITERARY REVIEW