The Reader was originally published in Switzerland in 1995 and translated from German into English by Carol Brown Janeway for publication in the United States in 1997. The book examines the guilt that Germany felt in the aftermath of World War II, and it depicts the heart-rending way in which young Germans tried to come to terms with the atrocities their parents, grandparents and other people close to them committed during the period of hostilities. The protagonist is Michael Berg, and the book shows the trouble he has determining whether he should love the people close to him or hate them for the role they played in allowing the Nazis to take control of his beloved country. It is a short book that is comparatively easy to read, yet the underlying theme based on the philosophy of guilt is somewhat difficult to pick up unless close attention is paid to the overall story, which I thought was a nice touch.

The Reader is divided into three parts that show the main character, Michael Berg, at various stages of his life. In Part One, Michael is a fifteen year-old boy who falls ill on his way home from school one day. He is assisted by the beautiful Hanna Schmitz, with whom he embarks on a torrid love affair, despite the fact that she is more than twenty years his senior. This section ends with Hanna disappearing from his life, and Part Two starts with Michael as a law student attending the post-war trials of suspected Nazis. To his surprise, Hanna is one of the accused, but he senses that she is, out of a feeling of shame, refusing to reveal a certain piece of evidence that would exonerate her from all guilt. Part Three shows Michael as a qualified lawyer trying to deal with the events that have occurred in his life. He marries and becomes a father, but the influence that Hanna has had on his life affects nearly all of his decisions, and things don’t quite go the way he would wish.

The Reader is a little like a flower from both the writing style and the storyline perspective, in that it starts off like a tight bud with simple English and a relatively simple plot, but blossoms into more complex sentence structures and a deeper plot as the story progresses. Personally I felt that Part One was drawn out too long, and I would have preferred more balance in the writing style. Overall I found it to be a thought-provoking read, but, if asked if I enjoyed it, I would have to say ‘not very much.’ The characters were well depicted and the general philosophy behind the plot was interesting, but I found Part One to be tediously long and Parts Two and Three to be hurried, as if the author had already shot his bolt and couldn’t wait to finish writing the book.

The Reader

Bernhard Schlink (English translation by Carol Brown Janeway)

ISBN: 978-0-307-47346-2