The Reader - Hardcover

Schlink, Bernhard

3.78

211,426 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679442790 ISBN 13: 9780679442790

Publisher: Pantheon Books, 1997

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

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--then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

Originally published in Switzerland and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading and shame in post-war Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"

The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue and excess in any form. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent and between words and silence. --R Ellis, Amazon.com

Review:

"A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel." --Los Angeles Times"Moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful. . . . [The Reader] leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart." --The New York Times Book Review"Arresting, philosophically elegant, morally complex. . . . Mr. Schlink tells his story with marvelous directness and simplicity." --The New York Times"Haunting. . . . What Schlink does best, what makes this novel most memorable, are the small moments of highly charged eroticism." --Francine Prose, Elle

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

PublisherPantheon Books
Publication date1997
ISBN 10 0679442790
ISBN 13 9780679442790
BindingHardcover
Number of pages218
Rating
- 3.78
  
  211,426 ratings by Goodreads

Buy New

Learn more about this copy

� 5.14

Convert currency

Shipping: � 3.17
Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Add to Basket

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780375707971: The Reader: A novel (Vintage International)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10: 0375707972 ISBN 13: 9780375707971
Publisher: Vintage Books, 1999
Softcover

W&N, 2008
Softcover
Turtle..., 1999
Hardcover
Vintag..., 2008
Softcover
Weiden..., 2003
Sports

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

The Reader

Schlink, Bernhard; Janeway, Carol Brown (translator)

Published by Vintage Books (1997)

ISBN 10: 0679442790 ISBN 13: 9780679442790

New Hardcover Quantity: 1

Seller:

Read&Dream
(SAINT LOUIS, MO, U.S.A.)

Rating

Seller Rating:

Book Description Condition: New. Safe and Secure Mailer. No Hassle Return. Seller Inventory # 4JSHAO003ZAL

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New

� 5.14

Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: � 3.17

Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Stock Image

The Reader

Schlink, Bernhard; Janeway, Carol Brown (translator)

Published by Vintage Books (1997)

ISBN 10: 0679442790 ISBN 13: 9780679442790

New Hardcover Quantity: 1

Seller:

Prompt Shipping/ Quality Books
(Bay, AR, U.S.A.)

Rating

Seller Rating:

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 68610-72

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New

� 9.82

Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: � 3.17

Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Stock Image

The Reader

Schlink, Bernhard; Janeway, Carol Brown (translator)

Published by Vintage Books (1997)

ISBN 10: 0679442790 ISBN 13: 9780679442790

New Hardcover Quantity: 1

Seller:

GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Rating

Seller Rating:

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0679442790-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New

� 13.06

Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE

Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Stock Image

The Reader

Schlink, Bernhard; Janeway, Carol Brown (translator)

Published by Vintage Books (1997)

ISBN 10: 0679442790 ISBN 13: 9780679442790

New Hardcover Quantity: 1

Seller:

Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Rating

Seller Rating:

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0679442790-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New

� 13.06

Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE

Within U.S.A.

Destination, rates & speeds

Stock Image