The Reader

Personal and national histories mingle as law student Michael finds his erstwhile lover Hanna on trial for war crimes in post-war Germany. "the reviewer's sole function is to say read it and read it again" George Steiner, The ObserverFollowing an accidental meeting, Michael, a schoolboy in post-war Germany, begins a clandestine affair with an older woman, Hanna, but his fascination wanes as she refuses to talk about her past, effectively closing her life to him.

Although frustrated by the relationship himself, Michael is shocked and feels obscurely guilty when Hanna simply disappears, leaving him with only memories and unanswered questions.Years later, now a law student, Michael recognises Hanna as the defendant in a major war crimes trial, wilfully mishandling her defence and allowing herself to be presented as a ringleader.

As two linked pasts - theirs and Germany's - break together into the present, Michael sees that Hanna's behaviour, then as now, conceals secrets buried deeper even than her crimes.From this moment of recognition forward, Michael too will be pursued by memories he can neither leave behind nor move beyond."achieves enormous moral force... haunting and unforgettable" Literary Review